Comment · Thu, November 8, 2012
Research Suggests no Neurotoxicity in MDMA
Original post in this thread
PuffyCheek · 194 points
In partial response to what I've been reading in the bestof'd thread here at /drugs, I think it would be good to start a discussion about the neurotoxicity in MDMA.
I feel as if the harmful effects discussed in the thread were overblown. According to a research done by the Harvard Medical School last year in 2011, users who were asked to use MDMA under a controlled setting over a certain period of time showed no signs of cognitive impairment nor decreased mental ability.
So the question remains, why do we have so much evidence from past research studies that show otherwise? The researchers at Harvard Medical School responded by saying that past research studies lacked a proper control environment. What that means is that past research studies did not control their test group to make sure they didn't engage in unhealthy activities after ingesting MDMA (i.e. going to a rave and dancing for 8 hours straight).
No research since 2011 has proved Harvard Medical School's conclusion wrong, that MDMA is actually harmful to your brain. No other research studies that I could personally find had settings as controlled as the one conducted by HMS.
That being said, research was done…
What they were answering
Borax · 11 points
Here's how I see it.
Several studies have shown that MDMA or its metabolites are definitely neurotoxic in various settings. We can't repeat the same research in humans but we can look for cognitive deficits and memory loss. The problem is, when we do that, we get conflicting results, without useful differentiation.
What we do know though, is that there is the potential for people to lose the "magic" of MDMA. People who extensively abuse it end up a bit "e-tarded". That could be because of other variables, but that's not a risk I want to take, given that we know MDMA has the potential to be neurotoxic.
What worries me too is that the permanent magic loss could be indicative of damage. It's most noticeable when we compare MDMA experiences, but what if we're always suffering light effects as a result but we haven't realised because the change has been so gradual?
This not really very scientific, but given the ambiguity of the science and the ease of taking precautions against neurotoxicity, I'm not going to risk compromising my long-term happiness for a few extra mdma experiences until tolerance develops.
There are plenty of other drugs to cycle through in the meantime, and who wants to be unable to enjoy MDMA in 20 years? Not me.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
The loss of magic can come from many factors such as down-regulation, or in extreme cases, total neuronal death. However, the one place most everyone overlooks is probably the main cause, your gated calcium channels. Excitiotoxicicy arises when your gated ion channels like NMDA and AMPA are kept open too long in response to various stimulants, causing too much calcium to enter your neurons. This causes your ion channels to become desensitized, or can even lead to neuronal death if the calcium concentrations get too high. This is why piracetam, which is an NMDA receptor allosteric modulator, help those who have lost the magic. This is also why memantine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, helps slow or even reverse tolerance. I always take a highly bioavailable magnesium supplement with my MDMA, because it is a voltage-dependent NMDA receptor antagonist. But yes, time off is always the best defense against tolerance.