From: [lamon t g] at [u.washington.edu] (Lamont Granquist)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: Straight Dope
Date: 26 Aug 1994 03:12:09 GMT

[d--vi--s] at [msupa.pa.msu.edu] writes:
>In article <[ohoffmanCv 0 zyB DF] at [netcom.com]>, [o--ff--n] at [netcom.com] (Owen
>Hoffman) 
>writes:
>>Did anybody else catch "Straight Dope" on MTV tonite?  I thought that it 
>>came off fairly well and was in support of legalization.  They did say 
>>one thing I haven't heard before though... that "some experts believe" 
>>that MDMA may cause serious brain damage.  
>
>    In the summer of 1989 I did some library research on MDMA. I found some
>articles in reputable scientific and medical journals, although I don't
>have the citations. The authors reported that MDMA selectively damages 
>serotonin terminals in the brain. I'm not certain of the quality of their 
>experiments, but I'm inclined to give some weight to their findings. It is my
>recollection that these findings were confirmed by subsequent experiments, 
>and that the conclusions of the studies have not been seriously challenged.
>Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

I keep finding studies which indicate that there might be neurotoxic effects
and studies which i think tends to blow them away.  The most disturbing,
of course, is Ricaurte's single-dose 5.0mg/kg p.o study which showed
decreases in 5-HT and 5-HIAA (but [3H]paroxetine binding was *not* reported)
which did not recover -- possibly indicating that in primates cell death
rather than just axon death occurs.  At 2.5mg/kg p.o. every 2 weeks for
4 months (eight doses), however, Ricaurte found there was a lack of
any indication of 5-HT neurotoxicity.  O'Callighan has recently reported in
a NIDA Monograph that MDMA does not produce a reaction on GFAP assays which
would indicate neurotoxicity, although MPTP and Methamphetamine do -- possibly
indicating that decreases in 5-HT and 5-HIAA are not *just* correlated with
5-HT neurotoxicity, and that the "neurotoxicity" which is being indirectly
measured might really be something else.

Anyone got any data on a MDMA level in some animal which produces 
decreases in 5-HT and 5-HIAA but not [3H]paroxetine binding?  If so, i'd
like to know about it...

-- 
Lamont Granquist ([lamon t g] at [u.washington.edu])
"The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the
 Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the
 saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and
 becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery.  Yet this absurd
 fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of
 the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history" -- Laz Long