In order to understand the effects of the ecstasy pill, Australian researchers studied people who were using this drug at parties and soon came to realize that because the ecstasy pill contains other drugs as well, the brains of ecstasy users are more at risk than suspected.
Dr. Thomas Newton, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, was not involved in the research but revealed his concern that most studies focused on toxicity only look into a single drug, "We have no idea what happens when you start mixing like this," he says, users are more at risk because of the mixture of harmful ingredients that make up a single ecstasy pill.”
Dr. Thomas Newton, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, was not involved in the research but revealed his concern that most studies focused on toxicity only look into a single drug, "We have no idea what happens when you start mixing like this," he says, users are more at risk because of the mixture of harmful ingredients that make up a single ecstasy pill.”
Fifty six people who had taken ecstasy in the past let researchers join parties where they would take the drug again. The researchers took samples of the pills as well as measurements of MDMA (the chemical in ecstasy) from the users’ blood, paying each one 200 dollars at the end of the research. The amount of MDMA reached devastatingly high in some participants but researchers noticed that some pills had no MDMA at all. Most contained methamphetamine or chemicals related to MDMA. "This highlights a significant public health concern, particularly regarding the existence of pills containing more than 200 milligrams of MDMA," the authors write in their report of the study, which is published in the journal “Addiction”.
This research, which was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, took place to capture a realistic view of ecstasy users. According to Dr. Rod Irvine, the lead author of the study, collecting data at parties is more effective than in a lab setting due to ethical restrictions that prevent researchers from testing high doses in people. In fact, the amounts they experiment with, reportedly did not reflect the range used naturally. Most participants took more than one pill, sometimes as many as five in the course of the night. Irvine states that taking multiple pills is likely to lead to very high blood concentration, which may be harmful and possibly fatal.
Seven out of every 100 twelfth-graders say they have tried ecstasy. According to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, ecstasy can interfere with heart rate and temperature regulation in addition to causing brain damage. No one in this study, however, suffered immediate health problems from using ecstasy.
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