PMID- 9584971
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19980623
LR  - 20191210
IS  - 0269-8811 (Print)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Linking)
VI  - 12
IP  - 1
DP  - 1998
TI  - Cognitive performance in recreational users of MDMA of 'ecstasy': evidence for 
      memory deficits.
PG  - 79-83
AB  - Cognitive task performance was assessed in three groups of young people: 10 
      regular users of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) who had taken 'ecstasy' 
      10 times or more; 10 novice MDMA users who had taken 'ecstasy' one to nine times; 
      and 10 control subjects who had never taken MDMA. A computerized battery of 
      cognitive tasks (Cognitive Drug Research system) was undertaken on a day when 
      subjects were drug free. Performance on the response speed and vigilance measures 
      (simple reaction time, choice reaction time, number vigilance), was similar 
      across the three subgroups. However on immediate word recall and delayed word 
      recall, both groups of MDMA users recalled significantly less words than 
      controls. Animal research has shown that MDMA can lead to serotonergic 
      neurodegeneration, particularly in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Although 
      the design of this study was far from ideal, these data are consistent with other 
      findings of memory decrements in recreational MDMA users, possibly caused by 
      serotonergic neurotoxicity.
FAU - Parrott, A C
AU  - Parrott AC
AD  - Department of Psychology, University of East London, UK. andy2@uel.ac.uk
FAU - Lees, A
AU  - Lees A
FAU - Garnham, N J
AU  - Garnham NJ
FAU - Jones, M
AU  - Jones M
FAU - Wesnes, K
AU  - Wesnes K
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - J Psychopharmacol
JT  - Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
JID - 8907828
RN  - 0 (Hallucinogens)
RN  - 0 (Illicit Drugs)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Analysis of Variance
MH  - Cognition/*drug effects
MH  - Female
MH  - Hallucinogens/*pharmacology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Illicit Drugs/pharmacology
MH  - Male
MH  - Memory/*drug effects
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/*pharmacology
MH  - Reaction Time/drug effects
EDAT- 1998/05/19 00:00
MHDA- 1998/05/19 00:01
CRDT- 1998/05/19 00:00
PHST- 1998/05/19 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1998/05/19 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1998/05/19 00:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1177/026988119801200110 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Psychopharmacol. 1998;12(1):79-83. doi: 10.1177/026988119801200110.