Warnings that ecstasy causes long-term brain damage are premature because the supporting evidence is too weak, say three psychologists.
鈥淲e鈥檙e saying we need more definitive proof before we tell users in cast iron that ecstasy will cause brain damage or depression,鈥� says Harry Sumnall of the University of Liverpool.
Co-written with Jon Coles, also at Liverpool, and Charles Grob of the University of California at Los Angeles, the claims echo a 快猫短视频 report in April. They appear in a review of ecstasy research in The Psychologist, the journal of the British Psychological Society.
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But their criticisms are robustly challenged in the same publication by mainstream ecstasy researchers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 insane to propose that ecstasy is not damaging鈥� in the long term says Andy Parrott of the University of East London.
Sumnall stresses the distinction between long-term effects 鈥� which they think are unproven 鈥� and the undisputed and potentially fatal acute effects of ecstasy, such as dehydration and heat stroke.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got no argument with that at all,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. In the UK between 1993 and 1997, there were 72 deaths ascribed to ecstasy, compared to 158 deaths from amphetamines.
Imaginary disorders
Controversially, the psychologists argue that lapses in memory or other psychological problems blamed on ecstasy might in fact be imaginary 鈥渋atrogenic鈥� disorders, brought on through autosuggestion by heavy media reporting of alleged dangers of ecstasy.
The researchers also argue that the lapses in memory experimentally observed in ecstasy-swallowing clubbers could be caused by sleep deprivation and other drugs.
鈥淢ost commonly ecstasy is taken as part of a 鈥榬ave鈥� lifestyle which means users are staying up all night and dancing, and taking other drugs,鈥� says Sumnall. These 鈥渃onfounders鈥� have not been adequately taken into account in ecstasy research, he argues.
Deep sleep
But Parrott, and other researchers who have been given the right to reply, say that the criticisms are unfair and unfounded. Parrott says, for example, that researchers have taken steps to distinguish the effects of ecstasy from those of sleep deprivation and other drugs.
In one experiment, for example, clubbers slept properly for a week before being tested. Other experiments have teased apart the effects of cannabis and ecstasy.
鈥淐annabis was associated with loss of 鈥榟ere-and-now鈥� memory, a sort of absentmindedness,鈥� says Parrott. 鈥淓cstasy was associated with prospective memory problems, such as remembering to go to the dentist.鈥�
Like Parrott, Rodney Croft of Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, says that 鈥渄anger is the most reasonable message for the researcher to be broadcasting鈥�.