According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, roughly 2.2 million people reported using MDMA at least once over the past 12 months. Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance can cause irreversible damage to the heart, brain, and kidneys. Molly causes severe dehydration, especially when a person is engaging in rigorous activity. If a person consumes excessive amounts of water, it can result in an electrolyte imbalance.
This can contribute to negative psychological aftereffects such as depression, anxiety, and fatigue, which you may experience for a few days after MDMA use. MDMA primarily increases the release of serotonin and norepinephrine. Serotonin is crucial for regulating mood, sleep, pain, appetite, and other functions, and the increased release of serotonin contributes to MDMA’s mood-elevating effects.
Is MDMA safe?
All Addiction Resource content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible. After using molly, the hippocampus, amygdala, cingulate, and specific cortices in the brain have lower activity. Serotonin transporter proteins and serotonin synthesis enzymes the alcohol-depression connection have been damaged after binging several doses of MDMA in one day. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that neurons release in the brain to communicate with itself and the rest of the body. MDMA stimulates the brain, and high levels of neurotransmitters are released and/or not reabsorbed.
Besides, the MDMA bindings to the plasma membrane transporters are also translocated into the cytoplasm and promote non-exocytotic transmitter release (Verrico, Miller, & Madras, 2007). This causes the accumulation of the neurotransmitters between the synapses, which can result in excitotoxicity. Although MDMA was reported to improve the emotional and personality problems in psychotherapy as mentioned earlier, its long-term effects can be more adverse. The massive release of serotonin that initially causes the psychotic symptoms can also give rise to the chemical damage to serotonin-releasing cells (Kalant, 2001). Due to the disruption of the normal brain biological system, MDMA can cause damage to the brain structure and nervous system, which increases the loss of neurons and alters the brain functions. Therefore, three main issues, including neuronal damage, alterations in neurotransmitters, and memory impairments will be reviewed in this present article based on the recent studies on the effects of MDMA abuse.
- The prosocial effects—the desire to socialize and bond with others— have been linked, though controversially, to MDMA’s effects on brain concentrations of the hormone oxytocin.
- They used more opiates, they used more amphetamines…and they smoked considerably more pot, long known to cause (non-permanent) memory problems.
- Besides, co-administration of acute MDMA and mephedrone showed antidepressant-like activity and improved memory in mice (Budzynska & Michalak, 2017).
- Those that do make some effort to control this effect usually do no more than ask volunteers not to use for two weeks and give urine test for drugs the day of testing.
- Due to the disruption of the normal brain biological system, MDMA can cause damage to the brain structure and nervous system, which increases the loss of neurons and alters the brain functions.
The role of overheating in MDMA neurotoxicity can hardly be exaggerated; no animal experiment has ever produced neurotoxicity at any dose of MDMA at normal human body temperature. In the infamous Ricaurte “Ecstasy Parkinsonism” monkey experiment, his animals reached body temperatures of as high as 107F. More typically, experimental animals that develop MDMA neurotoxicity reach body temperatures of about 39C (103F). Although the exact mechanisms of MDMA neurotoxicity are at best imperfectly understood, damage is clearly a result of the combination of the unusual strain placed on the neurons by drug exposure being greatly amplified by overheating. I do not anticipate human neurotoxicity at any likely voluntarily taken dose of MDMA in the absence of significant and prolonged hyperthermic response.
The long-term effects of MDMA on the brain
Throughout the long study, no serious adverse effects were recorded. However, further research is necessary to fully understand the specific effects of these changes on people who use MDMA. This contributes to the emotional excitement, euphoric feelings, and cognitive impairment you may often experience with MDMA use. A large observational study from 2022 found that MDMA use was connected to a lower risk of depression, and they advise further study to see if this is a true association. The main psychedelic effects of MDMA can last for an average of 3 hours. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in regulating everything from our emotions and memories to the way we feel pain.
Regarding the long-term effects of MDMA exposure, it was proven that MDMA could reduce the level of serotonin in the cerebrospinal fluid of rats (Mueller et al., 2009; Mustafa et al., 2018). However, some researchers have suggested that MDMA may be able to cause a long-term 5-HT down-regulation without causing structural damage to serotonin neurons (Kish, 2002). MDMA-induced serotonin deficit has been interpreted as neurotoxicity. Unfortunately, there is still an ongoing debate on whether the deficit of serotonin reflects damage to the neurons (Baumann, Wang & Rothman, 2007).
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seized drugs marketed as “Molly” only to find out that they were actually harmful substances like methylone and ethylone. For example, MDMA purchased on the street can possibly contain contaminants like methamphetamine, ketamine, dextromethorphan, and even cocaine. Many of these substances can have harmful effects, especially if you don’t know you’re taking them.
One testing service recently reported that only 39 percent of the pills they tested were pure MDMA, and half actually contained no MDMA. What any particular batch of Molly really contains is anyone’s guess. The researchers found that MDMA users rated themselves highly both on “feeling high” in general and on feeling “loving” in particular. Subjects on MDMA accurately perceived acceptance in the Cyberball game, but they were much less bothered by rejection; in fact, rejected MDMA users believed they had received many more throws than they actually had. Like the authors of the previous study, these researchers concluded that MDMA’s prosocial effects are less based on positive bias than they are on impaired recognition of rejection. The user feels more positive and “loving” because she can’t accurately process hostility.
However, the latest research also suggests that MDMA can be highly effective as part of a treatment plan for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other severe mental health conditions. Self-medicating with MDMA poses significant potential dangers, including physical and psychological ambien harm. MDMA misuse can deplete serotonin levels, leading to negative effects on mood, memory, and thinking ability. However, prolonged or heavy use of MDMA can have short- and long-term effects on your brain, which may lead to emotional and cognitive issues.
1. Effects of MDMA on neuronal damage
• Antioxidants are chemicals that, when they run into an oxidizer like hydrogen peroxide or superoxide, will easily react with it, neutralizing it. Antioxidants are part of the body’s natural defense system against such damage. If you’re living with an MDMA addiction and want to regain control, consider seeking professional help by consulting a healthcare professional or an addiction specialist.
Tao et al. (2015) suggested that serotonergic transmissions play a role in MDMA-induced syndrome. Along with the challenges caused by opiates, the increasing number of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) users and related disorders are unnoticed, especially for MDMA. Some countries, such as Norway, Germany, and Canada have classified it as Schedule I drugs, which is illegal to buy or possess without a license. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2004) reported that more than 11 million people have tried MDMA at least once in their lives (NIDA, 2006). Considering a new trend in the substance abuse preference, the MDMA effects will be reviewed focusing on neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration.
Part of the motivation to look for toxic metabolites may have been a red herring; the localized injections into rat’s brains that failed to produce notable damage probably also failed to produce a significant increase in body temperature. Indeed, the very title of the report is rather difficult to defend, as it describes the dose used as “a common recreational dose” of MDMA. Draconian new anti-MDMA laws were passed, including the infamous RAVE Act, which made it illegal to throw a party if you “should have known” that some people would be using drugs at it. MAPS, which had been on the verge of finally having its MDMA post-traumatic stress disorder research approved, was stopped cold in the face of the apparent new evidence of MDMA’s horrific dangers. This study is one of the largest, most sophisticated pieces of research of its type to date.
The quality of retrospective human research has, however, been increasing over the years; with luck, the future may bring more substantive work. Neurotoxic effects of MDMA on dopamine neurons were also reported in rats exposed to MDMA at a low dose, evidenced by the widespread alcohol and drug reduction of the number of the neurons upon MDMA exposure (Cadoni et al., 2017; Costa, Morelli & Simola, 2017). Breivik et al. (2014) also reported that long-term exposure of MDMA affected the serotonergic and dopaminergic transport systems in the rat brain.
One thing to note, however, is that many of the studies included in this review were animal studies, not human studies. So, we can’t necessarily apply these results to humans without doing more research first. Since that time, only a handful of studies have explored the possible long-term health effects of chronic MDMA use. An early study published in 2000 explored the literature on long-term cognitive effects of recreational ecstasy use. Heavy MDMA use has been shown to cause long-term effects on serotonin production, but researchers are trying to learn if long-term positive benefits exist as well.