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Ecstasy: Are Women More Susceptible To Brain Damage? The rave scene. Its becoming a popular way to kick-back for high school and college kids. Everyone is doing it at parties. Unfortunately, this party isnt all fun and games. Drugs are prevalent at raves.
Ecstasy, one of the most popular drugs abused there is like the tiny insects that arent widely feared, but can be deadly. It looks small and innocent, but its more harmful than you may think. Ecstasy is actually C 11 H 15 NO 2, which means. New studies show women may be at an even greater risk to prolonged effects of the drug ecstasy- 3, 4 -methylenedioxymethamphetamine. It is commonly known that ecstasy produces great levels of serotonin.
These chemicals are released in the brain, generating a false sense of happiness, self-esteem, and increase sexual drive. Prolonged exposure to the drug can result in a lack of serotonin altogether, leading to depression and many other mental illnesses. Ecstasy is commonly classified as a stimulant. Ecstasy is most often found in pill form, although it is also sold as a powder. Imprints on the pill classify them into brand names. Frequent users are known to buy from the same brand just like most all consumers prefer one brand of milk or orange juice.
The drug is easy to find and can range in prices from $ 20 - $ 50 per tablet. Since demand at the club scene is so high, buyers are sometimes sold imitation X, a drug that could contain any number of substances. Any other variant of Ecstasy could also be found with a mixture of drugs. Ecstasy is called: MAMA, X, XTC, Adam, The love drug, and many other names still being created. (web) Dutch studies grouped participants into three categories of users: moderate, heavy, and ex-users. Moderate use is classified as less than 50 tablets; heavy is more than 50 tablets; and ex-users were reportedly off ecstasy for at least one-year before the study. Users had to abstain from all drug use for 3 weeks before the study was conducted.
The three groups were also categorized by gender and age. The study revealed that MAMA use might result in lowered levels in the density of serotonin transporters in the brain. It also suggests that the degree of those levels was partially dependent on sex. Moderate users of both male and female participants did not seem to lead to a large reduction in the production of serotonin. The study suggests that the effects may be reversible, but it was not conclusive. In t his study, women were more susceptible than men to MAMA dose-related decreases in serotonin transporters (The Lancet, Dr Liesbeth Reneman).
Conflicting studies done by Semple showed no differences between the genders. This could be partly due to the time difference that participants stayed drug-free before the study. In the more conclusive study, four possible reasons were given for the gender-based difference. First, as with all human studies, their accounts of their MAMA use may have not been accurate.
However, this study suggests that women reported their drug use correctly, based on given results. Second, since women on average weigh less than men, the equal doses may have had a greater effect. However, on a tablet / kg basis, men had a higher exposure to MAMA than women (The Lancet, Dr. Liesbeth Reneman). Another possible reason could have been attributed to sample size. Last, age could have played a factor.
However, there was not a significant difference in the age groups. Reversibility of the effects on the female brain was suggested by this study. The study implies that the serotonin level changes persist for more than 7 years. It does, however, advise that future studies need to be conducted before a definite statement can be made. In conclusion, ecstasy is shown to have greater effects on women than men when studies are done with 3 using groups and 1 control group. Although not many experiments have been done trying to link gender to ecstasy use, further developments are being made to further study this misconceived drug.
In this study it is evident that women are at a greater risk to adverse effects from ecstasy, but there is the possibility that after long periods of abstinence, the brain cells may begin to repair themselves. BIBLIOGRAPHY The Lancet; web WebMD; www. webmd / search /ecstasy. com Ecstasy homepage; web
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