Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | List of forums | Search | FAQ

Re: Does Ectasy Cause Brain Damage and Depression? » Shawn. T.

Posted by SLS on October 3, 2005, at 8:36:31

In reply to Re: Does Ectasy Cause Brain Damage and Depression? » SLS, posted by Shawn. T. on October 2, 2005, at 18:44:08

Hi Shawn.


> I argue against assertions that MDMA causes brain damage (except the rare cases that Nick brought up) because it doesn't seem right to let people who have tried MDMA to believe that they've suffered brain damage when strong scientific evidence to support that conclusion is lacking. Again, I'm not saying that MDMA isn't associated with serious risks; we just need to be careful about making statements about it that could stigmatize certain people.

I agree that there is no unanimity in the contention that MDMA causes brain damage. Nor is there unanimity that d-amphetamine does not. I think your remarks are well targeted and reflect the dubious nature of some studies that implicate MDMA by inference rather than by observation.

Is d-amphetamine a neurotoxin that causes irreversible brain damage?

I posted the following abstracts because they make the points that MDMA has often been labelled a neurotoxin simply because it is chemically similar to other drugs that are known to be such, including d-amphetamine. The second abstract drew an interesting interpretation regarding the elevation in GFAP they observed after exposure to d-amphetamine. The last abstract is just an example of how easy it is to find citations suggesting neurotoxicity produced by d-amphetamine.


- Scott


---------------------------------------------------------------------


Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2005 Feb;5(1):79-86. Related Articles, Links


Ecstasy: pharmacology and neurotoxicity.

Morton J.

Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1PD, UK. ajm41@cam.ac.uk

In part because it is amphetamine derived, ecstasy has inherited some of its parent compound's reputation for being neurotoxic. However, whereas amphetamine and methamphetamine undoubtedly cause irreversible brain damage with long-term use, the jury is still out on the party drug ecstasy. The deadly reputation of ecstasy has been fuelled by the tragic fates of healthy young clubbers who have died after taking the drug. However, compared with other recreational drugs, there have been very few ecstasy-related deaths. Further, there is little evidence for short-term neurotoxicity of ecstasy at recreational doses. That is not to say that ecstasy leaves the user neutral. Chronic ecstasy use causes depletion of serotonin, which has subtle but important long-term effects on cognition and mood. Although it seems unlikely that we will be faced with a generation of party goers who suffer from premature Parkinson's disease, so little is known about the long-term effects of ecstasy on mood, emotional states and cognitive function that at present we cannot predict what impact their use of ecstasy will have on the middle-age of the average ecstasy user.

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 15661630 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


-----------------------------------------------------------------


Eur J Pharmacol. 2004 Mar 19;488(1-3):111-5. Related Articles, Links


Repeated amphetamine treatment causes a persistent elevation of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the caudate-putamen.

Armstrong V, Reichel CM, Doti JF, Crawford CA, McDougall SA.

Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA.

The ability of repeated D-amphetamine (2 mg/kg) treatment to induce behavioral sensitization in rats and alter glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), dopamine transporter (DAT) and glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) immunoreactivities was assessed after a 10-day drug abstinence period. Results showed that a sensitizing regimen of amphetamine caused a persistent increase in the number of GFAP-positive cells in the dorsal and ventral caudate-putamen. DAT and GLT-1 immunoreactivities were unaffected. Although the elevated GFAP expression may be due to a mild neurotoxicity, it is also possible that amphetamine-induced increases in GFAP reflect adaptive changes that may be associated with processes underlying behavioral sensitization.

PMID: 15044042 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


------------------------------------------------------

: Chin J Physiol. 2000 Jun 30;43(2):69-74. Related Articles, Links


Nomifensine attenuates d-amphetamine-induced dopamine terminal neurotoxicity in the striatum of rats.

Wan FJ, Shiah IS, Lin HC, Huang SY, Tung CS.

Institute of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

Long-term or high dose administration of d-amphetamine (AMPH) in the rat has been shown to result in dopamine terminal neurotoxicity in the striatum of rats. This phenomenon includes depletion of dopamine content, decreased activity of tyrosine hydroxylase and diminish in the number of dopamine reuptake transporter. Recent studies implicate a role of oxidative stress induced by dopamine in the AMPH-induced neurotoxicity. However, the primary source of dopamine responsible for radical formation during AMPH challenge has remained elusive. To elucidate this issue, the study was designed to examine the effects of nomifensine, a dopamine transporter blocker, and deprenyl, a monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitor, on the prevention of striatal dopamine neurotoxicity in AMPH-treated rats. The results showed that nomifensine but not deprenyl protected against AMPH-induced long-term dopamine depletion. Correspondingly, the hydroxyl radical formation caused by AMPH in the striatum was attenuated by nomifensine, whereas its formation was not abolished by deprenyl. In conclusion, this study suggests that intracellular oxidative stress is more likely involved in the AMPH-induced dopamine terminal toxicity in the rat striatum, while this phenomenon is not mediated by MAO-B pathway.

PMID: 10994696 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Thread

 

Post a new follow-up

Your message only Include above post


[562253]

Notify the administrators

They will then review this post with the posting guidelines in mind.

To contact them about something other than this post, please use this form instead.

 

Start a new thread

 
Google
dr-bob.org www
Search options and examples
[amazon] for
in

This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | FAQ
Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:SLS thread:560483
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051003/msgs/562253.html