Neuropsychobiology
January 1, 2009
Philip N. Murphy, Michelle Wareing, John E. Fisk et al.
49 citations
A review of 33 studies on abstinent ecstasy (MDMA) users found that deficits in executive functioning are most consistently observed for updating verbal information and for visuospatial memory tasks that demand more than simple storage and retrieval, suggesting the overall level of executive demand is important. Evidence for impairment in shifting between mental sets was weak, while findings for inhibition and long-term memory access were unclear. All but one study used a cross-sectional design, a noted limitation, but researchers generally controlled for confounds such as other drug use through group designs and statistics. The review recommends future studies specify which executive processes tasks measure and consider task difficulty.
Behavioural Pharmacology
July 11, 2014
A. C. Parrott, Catharine Montgomery, Mark Wetherell et al.
34 citations
Recreational use of MDMA (ecstasy) increases cortisol levels, a marker of stress, both immediately and over longer periods. In laboratory settings, acute use raises cortisol by 100-200%, while dance clubbers combining the drug with dancing experience an 800% increase. Abstinent users' three-month hair samples show cortisol levels 400% higher than controls. Chronic users exhibit heightened cortisol in stressful settings, deficits in complex cognitive tasks, and altered brain activation patterns suggesting increased mental effort. Mood deficits include more daily stress and higher depression in susceptible individuals. Changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may explain these neuropsychobiological stress effects.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
January 1, 2005
Catharine Montgomery, John E. Fisk, Russell Newcombe et al.
22 citations
Recreational use of MDMA (Ecstasy) is linked to impairments in syllogistic reasoning, a form of logical deduction. In a study comparing 22 MDMA users (average age 21.36) with 26 non-users (average age 21.31), users performed significantly worse on reasoning tasks, even after accounting for other drug use. However, this deficit was no longer statistically significant when differences in working memory capacity were considered. The findings suggest that MDMA-related declines in working memory and executive function may underlie the observed reasoning difficulties.