Many young adults experiment with drugs when faced with the overwhelming amounts of freedom given to them in college.  Most of the time their drug use is done for recreational purposes and they neglect to realize the dangers involved in their drug use.  Ecstasy, a commonly used drug at clubs and raves, has recently gained in popularity among recreational drug users.  However, users of this drug are so impressed with its euphoric effects that they rarely stop to learn about its extremely adverse side-effects.  This drug is still too complicated for scientists to understand completely, however, a recent study has shown side effects include seizures, comas, hyperthermia, and most frightening of all destruction of brain cells. Rabi Simantov, a scientist from the department of genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, recently published the report “Multiple Molecular and Neuropharmacological Effects of MDMA (Ecstasy),” which describes experiments he conducted regarding the harmful side effects of Ecstasy, in hopes of gaining a better idea of how the drug actually works (2004). 

            Simantov found new evidence that emphasizes Ecstasy’s ability to damage the brain.  He reports that Ecstasy destroys brain cells that produce serotonin, a chemical that influences brain’s communicatory functions(2004).  The main function of serotonin is to carry messages between nerves and this process regulates a person’s appetite, memory, mood, and even sleep patterns.   Ecstasy depletes the levels of serotonin in a person’s brain which, in turn, decreases the level of blood flow in the brain. 

            Ecstasy has numerous long and short term effects, all stemming from the drugs reaction with the brain.  Abnormalities that can occur from even one use of Ecstasy include seizures, coma, dilated pupils, cerebral thrombosis, hyperthermia, hot flashes, jaw clenching, and hallucination (Finsterer 2003).  Researchers have, in the past, been able to grasp a better understanding of the short term effects of Ecstasy but what goes on after the initial stages of exposure has yet to be discovered and generally agreed upon by scientists and doctors alike.  Ecstasy causes damage to the serotonergic nerve endings which directly causes certain abnormalities in the central nervous system (Finsterer 2003).  Simantov reports that the loss of the serotonin cells is probably the cause for many of the long term effects of the drug which include depression, psychotic attacks, and paranoia (2004). 

             Users of the drug find themselves with enhanced sensitivity and often dehydrated.  This is why the drug can be so dangerous, because users often take the drug at raves and dance clubs where the temperature is very warm and can make the dehydrating effects of the drug become deadly.  The most dangerous aspect of Ecstasy is that doctors and scientists cannot fully understand what goes on when it is introduced into the body.  The effects are severe enough, however, for researchers to know that the drug has lasting, irreversible effects on the brain.  Simantov states this about the drug, “when administered experimentally at a high dose, and occasionally in drug users, MDMA can cause convulsions, acute toxicity, and death.  Long-term memory deficits occur in rats exposed to the drug during brain development.  In humans, MDMA impairs verbal, visual, and recall memories” (2004).  There is little hope for users of Ecstasy. Only the experimented procedure of cell replacement therapy could create any hope for users, because as Rabi Simantov has discovered, one of the effects is cell death.  Cell replacement has left many scientists mystified, especially when attempting to replace cells in the brain.  This technique has yet to be perfected therefore leaving damaged users of Ecstasy with little to no hope for an eventual recovery of their lost abilities due to their drug use.    

Ecstasy has been growing greatly in popularity in the last decade and is now becoming easier to acquire by individuals in search of its hallucinatory and euphoric effects.  But what is most frightening about the drug is that most of its users have no idea what they are actually doing to their bodies and most particularly to their brain.  The processes that go on in a person’s brain are extremely complicated and Ecstasy hinders these processes.  Users neglect to realize that they are tampering with probably the most important organ in the human body, the brain.  Both the physical and mental effects that users experience can harm a person in many different ways, in how it influences decision making, and how one perceives reality.  All drugs are harmful but Ecstasy affects primarily the brain.  That is a dangerous place to be tampering with, all in the pursuit of a good time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Rowan, K.E. 1999. Effective explanation of uncertainty and complex science.  In:

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Simantov, Rabi. (2004). Multiple Molecular and Neuropharmacological Effects of

               MDMA (Ecstasy). Life Sciences. Volume 74, Issue 7. 2 January 2004. pp. 803-

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Finsterer, J., Stollberger, C., Steger, C., Kroiss, A. (2003). Long lasting impaired cerebral

blood flow after ecstasy intoxication. Psychiatric and Clinical Neurosciences.

Volume 57, Issue 2.  April 2003. pp. 221.