Title: Ecstasy Damages Brain Serotonin Neurons
1Ecstasy Damages Brain Serotonin Neurons
- Presented by Michelle Dupre
- Biology Department
- Eastern Connecticut State University
2Positron emission tomographic evidence of toxic
effect of MDMA (Ecstasy) on brain serotonin
neurons in human beings.
- Article written by
- U.D McCann, Z. Szabo, U. Scheffel, R. F. Dannals,
G. A. Ricaurte - The Lancet 1998 352 1433-37
3What do we know about Ecstasy?
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine
Popular drug at raves, clubs, homes
4Transport of serotonin
5Previous findings
Animals show losses in serotonin markers
Doses parellel human doses
Previous studies use cerebrospinal fluid
6Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Neuroimaging technique
Attaches to face masks
11C Labels serotonin transporter
Detects status of neurons in the brain
7The Experiment
- Experimental group
- Control group
- PET scanning
8What were they looking for?
1) Differences in serotonin transport sites.
2) The relationship between MDMA use and binding.
3) Overall brain activity
9What did they find?
MDMA users have lower densities of 5-HT
transporter sites.
Direct relationship between MDMA use and decrease
in 5-HT binding.
10What does this all mean????
11DEATH
16 years old
23 years old
18 years old
12Any Questions?
13(No Transcript)