High incidence of
mild hyponatraemia in females using ecstasy at a rave party
Ecstasy is used by millions of people every day. Ecstasy is a popular
drug because of its distinctive emotional and social effects on the body. Ecstasy also causes hyponatraemia.
Hyponatraemia is an electrolyte disturbance in the serum where sodium levels
are lower than normal. This article is based on a study that was done on
ecstasy users to see if hyponatraemia occur more often in females than males. Hyponatremia is mainly caused by direct
stimulation of antiduretic hormone secretion by ecstasy. Over 30 cases of
severe symptomatic hyponatraemia have been reported in relation to the use of
MDMA, resulting in high mortality. This study was conducted in 2010 in
Amsterdam at an indoor party called Awakenings.
The point of care method was used to test the plasma sodium
concentrations in 63 subjects using MDMA and 44 controls. Urine test was used to confirm the use of
MDMA. The results showed that the plasma
sodium concentrations were much lower in the subjects using MDMA, than in the
subjects not using MDMA. Hyponatremia occurred mostly in females. Out of 30 females 8 of them developed
hyponatremia. There was no difference in
the number of pills ingested between the people who developed this complication
and the people who did not. It was also found that ecstasy caused a dipsogenic
effect in the body, because the subjects under the influence of the drug had an
higher level of fluid intake. At the party 25% of females and 3% of males under
the influence of MDMA developed mild hyponatremia. Due to the fact that
millions of people take this drug daily, measures should be taken to reduce
MDMA induced hyponatremia.
Reference
Van
Dijken GD, Blom RE, Hené RJ, Boer WH. "High Incidence of Mild
Hyponatraemia in FemalesUsing Ecstasy at a Rave Party." National Center
for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 13 Mar.
2013. Web. 19 May 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment