More evidence of Ecstasy risks
VICTIMS of the drug Ecstasy may fall foul of their own bodies metabolism.
A paper coming out shortly will change the perception of how the drug can prove fatal to some and not others, due to a considerable rise in antidiuretic hormone in some takers.
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"In the early 1990s deaths began to be reported in people who had taken ecstasy. Most were due to overheating from dancing too long without replacing lost fluid," he explained.
"Later, we reported cases of water intoxication which we thought was an interesting side effect of the drug but didnt think much more about it until Leah Betts died."
The new challenge resulted in an experiment with the Kings group which showed that everyone taking Ecstasy experiences a rise in antidiuretic hormone.
"We discovered it wasnt so much the drug that causes illness and death, its the body responses at the time, meaning fluid taken in wont leave the body.
"Ecstasy takers must not take in more fluid than their bodies need. In the worst cases, the brain swells like a currant dropped in water, causing convulsions and in rare cases, death."
Analysis of the work found that people with the biggest rise in antidiuretic hormone had the lowest blood levels of ecstasy, while those with the highest levels of ecstasy had the lowest levels of hormone. Some or all of the effects of ecstasy are very likely to be caused by a metabolite (breakdown product) of the drug.
Ecstasy (MDMA) has been around since 1914. It was tried by psychotherapists and drug users in the US but only when it reached Europe in the late 1980s, was it rediscovered as a dance drug, facilitated by its unique mix of properties, including euphoria, empathy and energy.
The using community claim no scientific evidence exists to suggest the drug is bad, yet evidence of damage to specific nerve terminals in the brain is well documented and an increasing number of research papers from trials around the world reveal memory decline even after a year or twos use of ecstasy, the professor added.
A bigger problem in future may be depression as damaged nerve terminals fail to maintain mood. "The permanent lifetime loss of mental ability among so many young people may be greater than the current burden of Alzheimers disease".
The professor plans to study effects further and a grant application has been registered so that the degree of harm caused can be measured more accurately and users at special risk identified. His research will try to identify the metabolite of ecstasy which produces the effects when the drug is taken.
Ethics committee approval has been granted for end of year trials giving a low dose of the drug to further examine these effects in volunteers. The first research to show that it is not MDMA but the breakdown product that produces MDMAs effects should prove that ecstasy has to be broken down to a metabolite before it is active. It will also reveal why some people suffer after small doses of MDMA the amount of breakdown chemical depends on peoples metabolic makeup. As everyone is different, some will be at much higher risk of harm than others.
"There should be more research done. One solution could be blood tests for all users to establish genetic makeup and tell them the likelihood that the drug will damage their nervous system and the risk of severe complications or death for them," the professor concluded.
"The government wants to pump money into stopping drugs such as heroin and cocaine but three quarters of a million ecstasy tablets are taken every weekend, and I want to know why it harms some people more than others. If we were able to tell certain people that they were at higher risk, we would at least be helping those who insist on taking the drug.
*** © Imperial College 2001. This article originally appeared in IC Reporter, the staff newspaper of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Please contact the editor Tanya Reed (Email: icreporter@imperial.ac.uk, Telephone: +44 20 7594 6697) for permission to re-use any or all parts of this article.***
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