Post #6- MDMA

Sarah Rodriguez

BBH 143-Posting #6

6/18/13

The article that I have chosen to post about this week that relates to our class lectures of the week is titled “MDMA, serotonergic neurotoxicity, and the diverse functional deficits of recreational Ecstasy use.” This article looks into the psychoactive effect that MDMA, or Ecstasy, has on the human brain. It first talks about how MDMA works on the brain. It explains how MDMA works on the serotonin transporter, and by reversing its normal reuptake action, it will cause a huge amount of efflux of serotonin in the synaptic cleft. The article then describes that serotonergic neurotoxicity following the use of MDMA in laboratory animals is well established as well as neuroimaging studies that found lower serotonin transporters due to the use of MDMA. The article then talks about the study that they used to analysis their findings. This study found that that the use of MDMA has caused impairments in memory as well as the impairment of higher cognitive skills. The use of MDMA during pregnancy will affect the child’s brain and they will have developmental problems. With these findings the article came to the conclusion that abstinent MDMA/Ecstasy users can show deficits in a wide range of biobehavioral functions with a serotonergic component.

I chose this article because it helped me to better understand MDMA and I was able to connect what I learn in class to what I learned from the article. In my opinion I still believe that MDMA should still be illegal in the United States because after what I learned in class lectures as well as this article, I still believe that MDMA is harmful to the human brain and should not be allowed to be taken recreationally.

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/science/article/pii/S0149763413001127?np=y