Positron Emission Tomographic evidence of toxic effect of MDMA ecstasy on brain serotonin neurons in human
Alex Kaczkowski Article Summary and Analysis Paper Positron Emission Tomographic evidence of toxic effect of MDMA (‘ecstasy’) on brain serotonin neurons in human beings. ... Szabo, gathered a variety of former MDMA (‘ecstasy’) users and also a number of non-MDMA users to determine whether or not the chronic use of MDMA causes neurotoxic effects in the brain. The experimental group was 14 previous MDMA users (nine men, five women) who had abstained from use of MDMA for at least three weeks or more prior to the study. 15 non-MDMA users (nine men, six women) were used as the control. ... Agreeing to abstain from psychoactive drug use for at least three weeks before the study, most of the participants had used MDMA more than 200 times and over a number of years. ... Also, participants could be excluded if the following were found in their blood and/or urine samples: positive drug screen; pregnancy; a severe medical illness; claustrophobia; and any other neuropsychiatric disease in which serotonin neurons have been concerned. PET scanning was used with the radioligand carbon-11 (McN-5652), which labels the brain serotonin neurons and who’s binding parallels that of the known distribution of serotonin-transporter sites in the human brain. The specific carbon-11 binding was then investigated to determine whether MDMA use leads to a lasting alteration in the carbon-11-identified serotonin transporter sites in the brain. Various screening (PET and MRI) was done to keep watch on the brain’s serotonin neurons. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to track the flow of serotonin neurons.