Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Reuters Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) ECSTASY DRUG USE LINKED TO MEMORY LOSS People taking the rave drug Ecstasy show subtle but significant changes in verbal memory after trying the drug for the first few times, Dutch researchers said. New users of the drug, which is popular at dance clubs, who had taken a relatively low cumulative dose of about three tablets of Ecstasy scored lower on tests that required them to memorize a series of words and then recall them later. A casual observer wouldn't notice this degree of memory impairment, which also would be no handicap to a person, but it's possible it could increase future risk of dementia or memory problems, said Dr. Thelma Schilt of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. "We also don't know what happens when the brain gets older," she added. A number of studies have linked Ecstasy with impaired verbal memory, but most research has been done in heavy users of the drug, according to the researchers who reported the findings in the Archives of General Psychiatry. To better understand the effects of lower doses, the researchers enrolled 188 people, average age 22, who said they had never used the drug but were considering trying. About three years later they compared 58 people who had started using Ecstasy to a matched group of 60 individuals who had not tried the drug. Those who hadn't used Ecstasy showed improvements in verbal recall over time in a series of five trials of their ability to memorize 15 words. Verbal recall for Ecstasy users didn't improve over the course of the trials, and worsened over time. "They missed the retest effect that is normal and that we could see in controls," Schilt explained. The users had taken an average of 3.2 tablets in total since they began using Ecstasy, while most had used a cumulative dose of 1.5 tablets. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman