Ecstasy Leads to Drops in Serotonin Production

Vanderbilt University investigators say in a new study that consuming the drug ecstasy – also called methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA – can lead to significant changes in the brain, including a chronic loss of the key neurotransmitter serotonin.

The chemical is largely responsible for our feelings of well-being and happiness. However, ecstasy causes long-lasting serotonin neurotoxicity – damage occurs to nervous tissue – in the human brain.

“Our study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that the drug causes chronic loss of serotonin in humans,” Vanderbilt associate professor of psychiatry Ronald Cowan, MD, PhD, says.

Details of the mechanisms MDMA uses to cause these ill side-effects are presented in a paper published in the latest issue of the medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry, PsychCentral reports.