A prospective study of learning, memory, and executive function in new MDMA users
Addiction July 26, 2012 Daniel Wagner, Benjamin Becker, Philip Koester et al. 54 citations
A prospective cohort study followed 109 nearly MDMA-naive subjects for 12 months to determine whether cognitive deficits appear after beginning MDMA use. Twenty-three subjects who used more than 10 MDMA pills (mean 33.6 pills) were compared with 43 subjects who used no illicit drugs besides cannabis. Groups did not differ in age, intelligence, cannabis, alcohol, or other lifestyle confounders. MDMA users showed significant impairments in immediate and delayed recall of a visual paired associates learning task compared with controls, but no differences emerged on other tests of memory, learning, or executive function. The findings suggest MDMA specifically impairs visual paired associates learning, possibly due to serotonergic dysfunction in the hippocampus.