Ecstasy harms memory in novice users

People taking the illicit recreational drug Ecstasy show subtle but significant impairment in verbal memory after trying the drug for the first few times, Dutch researchers report.

While novice users in the study had taken a relatively low cumulative dose of about three tablets of Ecstasy, on average, they scored lower on tests that required them to memorize a series of words and then recall them later.

A casual observer wouldn’t notice this degree of memory impairment, which also would be no handicap to a person, but it’s possible it could increase future risk of dementia or memory problems, Dr. Thelma Schilt told Reuters Health. “We also don’t know what happens when the brain gets older,” she added.

A number of studies have linked Ecstasy use and impaired verbal memory, but most research has been done in heavy users of the drug, Schilt of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam and her team note in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

To better understand the effects of lower doses, the researchers enrolled 188 people, average age 22, who said they had never used the drug but were considering trying it in the “near future.” About three years later, they compared 58 people who had indeed begun using Ecstasy to a matched group of 60 individuals who had not tried the drug.

Those who hadn’t used Ecstasy showed improvements in verbal recall over time in a series of five trials of their ability to memorize 15 words, but verbal recall for Ecstasy users didn’t improve over the course of the trials, and in fact they performed a bit worse over time. “They missed the retest effect that is normal and that we could see in controls,” Schilt explained.

The users had taken an average of 3.2 tablets in total since they began using Ecstasy, while most had used a cumulative dose of 1.5 tablets.

Ecstasy is known to deplete the brain chemical serotonin, Schilt noted, while areas of the brain involved in verbal memory including the temporal and hippocampal regions are particularly sensitive to serotonin.

It’s not clear if the effects of Ecstasy on memory are permanent, she added. Users in the current study had abstained from the drug for an average of 12 weeks before taking the memory tests, and Schilt’s team plans to follow the study participants to determine if the memory of Ecstasy users who refrain from the drug will recover.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, June 2007.

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