Ecstasy use triggers deep depression
Just two tablets enough to cause long-term health problems, psychologists are told
Jo Revill, health editor
Sunday March 16, 2003
The Observer
Ecstasy, the so-called love drug taken by hundreds of thousands each weekend, can result in crippling depression after just a couple of tablets, a study revealed yesterday.
Experts warned that the changes to the brain brought about by the drug leave a legacy of long-term mental health problems, including memory loss and lack of concentration, although many young people still regard it as harmless.
Psychologists have found that even those who gave up taking the drug several years ago scored higher on a depression rating than people who had never taken it.
But for clubbers who are taking large number of tablets regularly, ecstasy actually appears to tip them into clinical depression, according to Dr Lynn Taurah, researcher at London Metropolitan University.
She looked at the habits of 221 young professionals and studied the differences between frequent and less frequent ecstasy users, also comparing them with former users, people who used cannabis and those who took nothing at all.
'What we found is that, whether you have taken it fewer than 20 times or more than 20 times in the past few years, you are still more likely to be depressed than non-users,' said Taurah.
'But for those who over years have taken thousands of tablets, there is a significant chance of serious depression. It's a weird drug.
'At first it gives you a surge of happiness, but after a day or two, and up to three weeks later, the user will have mood swings and feel low. In theory, it shouldn't have a long-lasting effect, but our study showed that even those people who had stopped taking it had higher scores on the depression rating than those who had never taken it.'
Taurah presented a paper yesterday at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Bournemouth.
At the conference earlier in the week, Dr Fabrizio Schifano, a leading authority on the drug, revealed new data showing how ecstasy was very often being taken in a cocktail with other drugs. Schifano, a consultant psychiatrist at the addiction centre at St George's Hospital Medical School in south London, said: 'What we know from previous studies is that those who take relatively large amounts of tablets have an eight times higher chance of suffering depression than the lower users.'
He revealed at the conference that, out of the 202 ecstasy deaths recorded in England and Wales between 1997 and April 2002, 85 per cent involved mixing ecstasy with other drugs.
He said that it was common for clubbers to start their evening with a mixture of alcohol and ecstasy and that during the second part of the night - usually between 2am and 3am - they would often re-energise themselves with 'uppers' such as cocaine and amphetamines.
Then at the end of the night, as the 'loved-up' feelings begin to fade and be replaced with irritability - usually between 5am and 6am - it was common to take 'downers' such as alcohol and heroin.
'If you take ecstasy, you tend to have a liberal attitude towards drugs and are more likely to have tried a vast array of other drugs, but even when you allow for the impact of the other chemicals, it is clear that ecstasy is linked to depression and other cognitive disturbances.'
He said that most users were completely unaware of the fact that it might also lead to memory loss and difficulties concentrating.
This has been confirmed by brain-imaging techniques showing that ecstasy affects serotonin neurones - nerve impulses fired when the mood-chemical serotonin hits them.
The cells, which run from the brain stem down to the frontal cortex, are 'pruned' by the chemical, removing cells that affect our response to pain and govern mood and cognitive functions.
'We can no longer conclude that ecstasy is going to be safe. This new study confirms the other research showing that even a small amount has an impact,' said Schifano.
'What no one can predict is what it will mean for the future. These clubbers may be 24 or 25, but how will their minds be affected by the time they are 55 or 60?'
