3, 4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) also known as Ecstasy is a common recreational drug of abuse and reports of abuse of tricyclic antidepressants are also known. We report two cases of misuse of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) antidepressants in combination with Ecstasy and their beneficial subjective effects experienced by misusers. We hypothesise the probable underlyin...

We report the case of an acute cerebral hemorrhage after one "ecstasy" tablet in a 21 year old woman without any relevant medical or surgical history. The status showed a right sensorimotor syndrome. The CT-scan and the MRI revealed a left cerebral hemorrhage. The patient only partially recovered her neurological functions after one year. The discussion deals with the effects and dangers of 3,4...

Recreational use of the illegal drug "ecstasy" has increased dramatically in recent years. We have measured 33 different plasma amino acids in ecstasy users and controls. Significant differences were found for phosphoserine, glutamate, citrulline, methionine, tyrosine and histidine. Resembling changes in the plasma amino acids have been described in acute transient polymorphous psychosis. Thus,...

A new ecstasy-like substance, meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), has been detected in street drugs in the Netherlands. Theoretically, mCPP possesses the potential to become a non-neurotoxic alternative for methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the regular psychoactive substance of ecstasy. Since its introduction on the Dutch market of synthetic drugs, the percentage of mCPP-containing tablets ...

Halpern and colleagues [1] have overcome some of the methodological issues raised previously [2] concerning their initial pilot study of ecstasy users [3]. Their latest study [1] found that of 15 neuropsychological tests tapping various cognitive and memory functions reported previously by others to differentiate ecstasy users from controls, only the Revised Strategy Applications Test (RSAT) sh...