Ecstasy can damage your brain according to a new study
According to a new report by Pulse Radio another new study has been revealed that proves the harmfulness of the regular party drug known as ecstasy.
It’s probably already apparent to you that drugs (any drugs really) are bad for you. Only when a study such as these pop up, pin pointing just what you may be doing to your body it can get a little disconcerting for those who partake.
The study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology and it found that those who make use of ecstasy show signs of poorer brain processing when given tasks that are cognitively challenging.
The findings are unique to ecstasy since the research suggests that neither alcohol nor cannabis was causing a difference in brain function such as this.
These signs of ecstasy users were compared to those in the study group have never used the drug. The ecstasy users in the study were recorded as having used MDMA/ecstasy ‘at least 11 times’.
Throughout the study they also found that those who make use of MDMA also make use of other substances. No surprises there.
Also, for most people who take ecstasy, what they are actually ingesting is not pure MDMA.
The researchers made us of a Random Letter Generation (RLG) task while they ran MRI scans on the participants.
The brains of those who use drugs had to make use of more oxygen to do the same task as the non-drug users. This indicated that their brains had to work harder, ultimately adding extra strain.
According to the study…
“Significant increases in oxygenated haemoglobin (oxy-Hb) from baseline compared to controls at several voxels relating to areas of the inferior right medial prefrontal cortex, as well the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.”
They also found that these negative cognitive effects were a little more severe in those that used ecstasy most recently.
So basically, if you have exams coming up, leave the ecstasy binging for after the final paper.
Here’s the original paper that was published in September 2015.
News Source [Pulse Radio]
