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Ecstasy leads to chronic changes in the human brain
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Scientists at Vanderbilt University say that frequent use of ecstasy, an illegal "rave" drug that produces euphoria and emotional arousal, leads to chronic changes in the human brain.
The study results, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, provide evidence that ecstasy causes long-term serotonin neurotoxicity in the human body.
"Our study shows that the drug causes a chronic loss of serotonin in the human body," says study author Ronald Cowan.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for regulating mood, appetite, sleep, learning and memory.
The research is significant because MDMA (the chemical name for ecstasy) may have therapeutic effects and is currently undergoing clinical trials to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer-related anxiety.
"It's important that we understand the risks associated with using ecstasy. Proving MDMA is safe in clinical trials will allow people to self-administer the drug. So it's important to know the dose at which the drug becomes toxic," Cowan said.
In the current study, Cowan and colleagues used positron emission tomography (PET) to examine levels of serotonin-2A receptors in different areas of the brain in women who had used ecstasy and women who had never used the drug. The researchers limited their study to women because previous research has shown gender differences in serotonin receptor levels.
They found that ecstasy increased levels of serotonin-2A receptors and that longer duration of drug use (or higher doses) correlated with higher levels of serotonin receptors. The findings are consistent with some studies in animal models: the number of receptors increased in parallel with increasing drug doses to compensate for the loss of serotonin.
Previously, Cowan and his colleagues reported that ecstasy activates the brain in three areas associated with visual processing. "Together, these two studies provide compelling evidence that ecstasy causes long-term changes in serotonin activity in the brain," Cowan said. "It's really important to know whether this drug causes long-term brain damage because millions of people use it," he said. A 2010 National Survey of Drug Use found that 15.9 million people aged 12 and older in the United States had used ecstasy in their lifetime; 695,000 people had used ecstasy in the month before the survey.
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