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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent
#5429735 - 03/22/06 12:18 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent March 22, 2006 - abcnews.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Taking the drug Ecstasy can impair memory and learning, but giving up the drug can stop the slide in mental capacity, a new study shows. However, researchers also found evidence that in heavy Ecstasy users, the effects on memory may persist even after they quit.
"The message should be loud and clear that if you're using a lot, you're not going to recover learning and memory," Dr. Konstantine K. Zakzanis of the University of Toronto at Scarborough, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
Zakzanis and his colleagues had previously shown that people who used Ecstasy, also known by the chemical name MDMA, experienced a decline in their memory over a one-year period. The 15 study participants' reported using the drug from 3 to 225 times over the course of the year.
The researchers looked at the same 15 people after another year had passed. Seven were still using the drug, while eight had become abstinent. The researchers evaluated their memory and learning using three tests, including the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test, which is designed to evaluate everyday memory function.
In all of the former users who had been abstinent for at least 32 weeks, test scores improved compared with their scores one year previously. However, some individuals' scores stayed the same. Current users showed continued decline, with more frequent and longer-term use of the drug tied to greater loss of memory and learning function.
The worst impairments were seen in episodic memory, meaning the sort of memory a person uses while watching a news story on television and then trying to describe it to another person later.
"The general conclusions that one can make are that if you stop using, your memory won't get worse," Zakzanis said. "Depending on how much you've used, your memory may or may not recover."
Zakzanis pointed out that damage to memory and learning is just one harmful aspect of Ecstasy use, which also has been tied to depression.
SOURCE: Neurology 2006;66:740-741.
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ShroomDoom
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: veggie]
#5429874 - 03/22/06 01:01 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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another BLAH study with BLAH subject group size and BLAH results. wow. i really want to stop taking E now...
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dblaney
Human Being

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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: veggie]
#5431355 - 03/22/06 06:41 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Man these ridiculously small sample sizes are just silly. You cannot expect 15 people (probably not even chosen randomly) to represent the entire population of thousands upon thousands of people who have taken E.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Banez
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: dblaney]
#5431377 - 03/22/06 06:49 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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while the study group was small, i still believe the results.. i mean too much of any drug is going to cause brain problems at some point.. id never abuse a drug like e.. once a month is wayy more than i would ever do the drug
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Enth

Registered: 03/20/06
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: Banez]
#5435228 - 03/23/06 05:12 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Using E frequently is sure to burn-out your brain over the time. Some people take it once a week! Even if isn't used that often, in year or two it will show.
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unbeliever
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: Enth]
#5439133 - 03/24/06 06:08 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Are we to understand that none of the participants were using any other chemicals? Say, drinking? Or perhaps working as a janitor and being around bleach all day? Were any of them house painters?
-------------------- Happiness is a warm gun...
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HeavyToilet
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: unbeliever]
#5440567 - 03/25/06 10:17 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
unbeliever said: Are we to understand that none of the participants were using any other chemicals? Say, drinking? Or perhaps working as a janitor and being around bleach all day? Were any of them house painters?
Is that really something you'd want to risk? The chance of permanently fucking up your brain just for a high?
When you start to see studies piling up about something, and they're all suggesting the same thing, maybe it's time to think about the studies and perhaps even take them seriously and not just thinking "oh they're saying my drug of choice causes brain damage, it must be just a bunch of propaganda". It doesn't work like that, some drugs WILL fuck you up for quite possibly the rest of your life. Human beings don't know everything, and there's a lot of stuff, especially about drugs, that we're just looking into, and just now researching.
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dblaney
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: HeavyToilet]
#5440770 - 03/25/06 11:45 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I think he raises a valid point though, the studies aren't very well done, and can't be taken as in any way conclusive. For instance with this particular study, the sample was very small (15 people), was biased (chances are the 15 people weren't chosen completely at random), and as unbeliever says, there could be quite a number of extraneous and potentially confounding variables.
The sad thing is that almost all studies about 'illicit substances' (whether the researchers are for or against them, and you know how controversial a topic it is, almost all studies are slightly politically charged) are so limited in scope that it's very difficult to conduct a half decent study.
At least with MDMA, my conclusion is that it can be neurotoxic, but the user would have to use it frequently and/or in high doses before there would be much risk.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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HeavyToilet
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: dblaney]
#5440804 - 03/25/06 11:57 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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The thing is, lots of users DO do it all the time, numerous times a month.
When multiple studies suggest the same thing, doesn't it make you think that perhaps their findings are not far from the truth?
If people want to use themselves as Guinna pigs then it's their choice, go ahead. But I wouldn't call it a wise decision.
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dblaney
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: HeavyToilet]
#5441473 - 03/25/06 04:17 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yeah I agree with you there, using it numerous times a month is most likely dangerous, I can observe that first-hand with some of the people I know.
But I wouldn't call it a wise decision.
Me neither.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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DoubleVision
Man With TheMaster Plan
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: dblaney]
#5442619 - 03/25/06 11:07 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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ive been experiencing alot of memory loss and back pain.. lower bacxk pain
ive been doin e for about 2 years now... 3-5 days a week on and off... but i usually take 5-10 pills each time...i just recently took 21 blue number 1's and tripped balls... is there any way for ur bck to get better?
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sander
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: DoubleVision]
#5442682 - 03/25/06 11:35 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
DoubleVision said: ive been doin e for about 2 years now... 3-5 days a week on and off... but i usually take 5-10 pills each time...i just recently took 21 blue number 1's and tripped balls...
hahah
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ShroomDoom
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: sander]
#5449501 - 03/27/06 10:58 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i think blue number 1's were MDA. not MDMA.
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HeavyToilet
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Registered: 08/06/03
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: ShroomDoom]
#5450500 - 03/28/06 09:36 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I have a feeling he was being sarcastic.
Also there's no way of knowing, there might be dozens of different types of 'blue number 1s', All with different ingredients in them.
Edited by HeavyToilet (03/28/06 09:37 AM)
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unbeliever
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: HeavyToilet]
#5451380 - 03/28/06 01:45 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
HeavyToilet said:
Quote:
unbeliever said: Are we to understand that none of the participants were using any other chemicals? Say, drinking? Or perhaps working as a janitor and being around bleach all day? Were any of them house painters?
Is that really something you'd want to risk? The chance of permanently fucking up your brain just for a high?
When you start to see studies piling up about something, and they're all suggesting the same thing, maybe it's time to think about the studies and perhaps even take them seriously and not just thinking "oh they're saying my drug of choice causes brain damage, it must be just a bunch of propaganda". It doesn't work like that, some drugs WILL fuck you up for quite possibly the rest of your life. Human beings don't know everything, and there's a lot of stuff, especially about drugs, that we're just looking into, and just now researching.
I wasn't trying to justify or rationalize anything. I was honestly curious about the details of the study, and lacking those details I remain dubious for now. However I don't plan on ignoring this or any other studies that come out. If it turns out that orange juice causes cancer, I'd stop drinking it.
-------------------- Happiness is a warm gun...
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Seuss
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Re: Ecstasy-related memory impairment can be permanent [Re: veggie]
#5454058 - 03/29/06 06:34 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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> while the study group was small, i still believe the results..
Exactly what they want... lemme guess, you play the lottery too... not meant as an insult, but rather pointing out that the general public simply has no understanding what-so-ever of statistics or their significance.
The results from a small sample size are insignificant. They might be believable, but that doesn't matter. Science doesn't care about intuition or gut feelings.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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