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link between ectasy use and ms

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:31 am
by funkbudha
is there or has there been any studies into the link between ectasy use and ms........can anyone help or point me in the right direction...cheers

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:49 am
by Melody
Found this on Parkinsons as well as brain damage

Ecstasy
The DEA doesn't like it, but South Carolina psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer got FDA approval for the first double-blind study on the effect of MDMA on people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Victims of violent crimes will get ecstasy combined with heavy therapy. The DEA has also touted research suggesting that MDMA causes Parkinson's disease, but a recent study out of the University of Manchester showed that the drug reduces tremors.

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Date: 2002-03-05
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Ecstasy Link To Long-Term Brain Damage
Disturbing evidence is emerging that the increasingly popular drug ecstasy can be linked to users suffering long-term brain damage.

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Mind & Brain





University of Adelaide researchers have found that ecstasy taken on a few occasions could cause severe damage to brain cells, with the potential to cause future memory loss or psychological problems.

Dr Rod Irvine, an internationally regarded ecstasy expert from the University's Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, says with 7% of 17-year-olds reporting use of ecstasy, major health problems could be expected in the future.

"For many years it has been known from animal experiments that small doses of ecstasy-even if only taken on only a few occasions-can cause severe damage to certain brain cells," he says. "More recently, evidence has started to accumulate suggesting that this damage may also occur in humans. Brain scans and psychological assessment of ecstasy users has been used to obtain this information.

"If our suspicions are proved correct, it will mean many of our young people will have memory loss or psychological problems in the future."

Dr Irvine's research on brain damage caused by ecstasy shows that the drug seems to work mainly through its effects on one type of brain cell, and even through one molecule in those cells. It also seems likely that the way the body reacts chemically to ecstasy is important in producing adverse effects, as is the surrounding temperature, which can lead to users overheating.

Adelaide's reputation as having the highest per capita death rate from ecstasy in Australia-and perhaps even the world-forms another component of Dr Irvine's research.

Dr Irvine is looking at the shorter-term consequences of ecstasy "overdoses", and has established that the high rate of death is due to a different strain of ecstasy appearing on the Adelaide market in the mid1990s.

"Normal" ecstasy contains the pharmacological ingredient known as MDMA as its main ingredient, but the Adelaide strain often contained no MDMA but rather a more potent chemical known as PMA.

"PMA hasn't been around since the early 1970s when it was responsible for the deaths of several people in Ontario, Canada, and now it's reappeared here in Adelaide," Dr Irvine says. "We don't know where the PMA came from, but we do know that it has been prevalent in Adelaide since the mid 1990s."
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:17 am
by funkbudha
cheers mate for the info........but i was kinda lookin for wheather long term ectasy use could bring on ms.....thanks anyway...easy,andi

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:34 am
by Arron
andi, if E is a neuro-toxin (which I believe it is), then it can most likely cause oxidative stress to the brain (so once one has MS, then it could cause further damage to the central nervous system). In terms of triggers, if it is not pure, then it could theoretically serve as one of the mysterious "environmental agents" that are theorized to bring on the immune system's attack of the CNS in those genetically susceptible.

There has been some causality established between smoking and developing MS, but none that I've seen specifically in terms of recreational drugs. If you're trying to figure out how you got MS, welcome to one of the research world's greatest mysteries. As a start, another causal risk factor has been demonstrated between Epstein-Barr virus (mononucleosis) and MS.

best,
-arron

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:36 pm
by Melody
This is an interesting avenue but I guess a hard to look at one. How many MSer's were into one type of drug or another in their younger years????I know hubby and I were. Our life style has now changed but were there consequences???????????????????