College might be one of the most fascinating and enriching environments that you ever experience. You can learn from some of the most capable minds in the country, meet thousands of interesting people, and take advantage of innumerable exciting opportunities. Unfortunately, this environment also offers dozens of new substances to abuse. Most incoming students are aware of the consequences of such dangerous substances: cigarettes can eventually cause lung cancer, and alcohol can lead to liver problems. But what possible long term effects could be associated with one of the most popular new drugs on the market, Ecstasy? The drug isn’t physically addictive, and according to its supporters, all the little pill does is heighten one’s sensations and provide a euphoric feeling. These assurances race through your mind as someone offers you a tiny pill—at a party, a rave, or even just a friend’s dorm room—and you think, how bad could it be?

You, the wise student, might already know of the serious consequences such as panic attacks and death that can result if you overdose on Ecstasy, also known as MDMA (3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine). You might have heard the frightening account of someone having violent seizures from the drug or perhaps you’ve read the chilling statistics such as that in England alone, 202 people died by overdosing on Ecstasy from 1996 to 2002 (Wiley Interscience, 2003, para. 2). However, even the wisest of students might be unaware of recent research that suggests using Ecstasy just moderately can impair one’s memory and the functioning of important hormones. This means that not only is it unsafe to take ecstasy in large or frequent doses, but that it can also be extremely harmful to take just a few Ecstasy pills over your college years.

An experiment by Verkes et al. tested a total of 62 non-Ecstasy users, moderate users (used Ecstasy 12-48 times in the past 2 years), and heavy users (used the drug over 48 times in the past two years) (2001). All were healthy male visitors of rave parties, were between 18 and 28 years of age, and self-reported their use of Ecstasy. The participants took a series of tests designed to assess the different types of memory that Ecstasy could affect. For instance, participants were tested on how much information they could memorize at one time. Researchers found that the both of the Ecstasy-using groups had much shorter memory spans than non-users, meaning they were not able to hold as much new information in their memory at one time. Similar results were found in another test in which researchers presented a list of words to the participants. When participants were retested with this list, heavy Ecstasy users were worse at recognizing the serially presented words than the non-users were. Heavy users also had the slowest reaction times on memory exercises involving rapid responses, non-users had the quickest reaction times, and moderate users were in the middle. In general, researchers found that the more frequently a participant used Ecstasy, the more severe their memory loss was. This suggests that popping a few pills might substantially affect how you are able to think and process information.

In addition to affecting memory, ecstasy can have lasting effects on your body. Specifically, researchers found that Ecstasy impairs the serotonergic system, which is a hormone system within the body that is involved with controlling aggression, preventing depression, regulating moods, and managing impulses. Researchers discovered the impairment of the serotonergic system in Ecstasy users by first treating them with a drug that is supposed to increase the level of serotonin being produced. The increase in serotonin is known to be associated with an increase of the stress hormone cortisol. Researchers then measured the levels of cortisol in the participants’ blood. They found that non-users experienced a normal rise in their levels of cortisol, but that both Ecstacy-using groups had a substantially lower rise in their levels of cortisol. This showed that the serotonergic system of Ecstasy users was impaired, because drug was not effective in causing the proper rise in serotonin levels and thus in cortisol levels. Researchers suggest that because the serotonergic system regulates many crucial aspects of behavior and mental life, its impairment can lead to dozens of problems such as mood disorders and the inability to concentrate. However, these conclusions are still speculative because a direct relationship between an impaired serotonergic system and these problems has yet to be demonstrated. Furthermore, researchers admit to a limitation of their study: the bodily effects witnessed in Ecstasy users could be due to other drugs. Researchers did their best to screen participants for other drugs, and the data they obtained is consistent with past research.

In a competitive college environment, the ability to concentrate and to memorize facts is crucial to succeeding in the classroom. A simple way to help preserve your abilities is to not take Ecstasy, because even using it moderately can have major effects on your memory and hormone functioning, which in turn can have drastic effects on your behavior. Thus the little pill with such high promises of euphoria and bliss might seem tempting to the uneducated eye, but one may only hope that the more severe consequences it offers—whether it’s the potential threat of dying or simply not being able to memorize that complicated theorem for your calculus class—will eventually win out in the debate of “to take or not to take,” that many new college students will have to face.

 

 

References

 

Verkes, R.J., Gijsman, H.J., Pieters, M.S.M., Schoemaker, R.C., de Visser, S., Kuipers,

M., Pennings, E.J.M., de Bruin, D., Van de Wijngaart, G., Van Gerven, J.M.A.,

Cohen, A.F. 2001. Cognitive performance and serotonergic function in users of ecstasy. Psychopharmacology 153, 196-202.

 

Wiley Interscience. (2003, September 22). Ecstasy alone can kill—and numbers of deaths

continue to rise. Retrieved March 17, 2004, from http://www.innovations-

report.com/html/reports/medicine_health/report-21731.html