Posted by guttersnipe on July 11, 2004, at 1:52:04
In reply to Re: MDMA (Ecstacy) for PTSD, posted by linkadge on July 10, 2004, at 18:32:24
Actually, the key research suggesting that a single dose of MDMA can cause irreversible brain damage has now been thoroughly discredited, because the guy in charge of the study, Dr. Ricuarte, actually gave the monkeys in the study hefty doses of methamphetamine, not realistic doses of MDMA. Since that news came to light, earlier MDMA studies by Ricuarte have also come under attack for methodological and analystic flaws.
There is a pretty good collection of material about MDMA and neurotoxicity at http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_neurotoxicity.shtml
Also worth reading is a review of an April 2004 ABC news story about Ecstacy: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_media1.shtml
One thing that folks who are not subjects in the government-approved study should keep in mind is that under Prohibition, very little of what is sold as "Ecstacy" on the black market is pure, unadulterated MDMA. Most of it, if it includes any MDMA at all, also includes a combination of MDA, MDE, caffeine, pseudoephedrine, and/or sometimes methamphetamine. Anyone thinking about taking black market Ecstacy would be wise to first take a look at http://www.ecstasydata.org/ which shows results of tests of street Ecstacy to find out what was in them. Of course, both MDA and MDE have effects similar to MDMA (especially MDE), so the presence of those substances is not necessarily something to panic about. The Ecstacy pills containing methamphetamine (which are many of them) are rather troubling to me, though -- not very many methamphetamine users have very healthy relationships with that drug.
poster:guttersnipe
thread:364623
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040710/msgs/364912.html