Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a major area of research and development. The most widely accepted treatment for PTSD is prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, but for many patients it is intolerable or ineffective. ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) has recently re-emerged as a new treatment option, with ...

BACKGROUND Although the popular drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "ecstasy") has been shown to damage brain serotonin (5-HT) neurons in animals, the fate and functional consequences of 5-HT neurons after MDMA injury are not known in humans. We investigated the long-term effects of MDMA use on cortical 5-HT neurons in humans and memory function, because brain 5-HT has been implicat...

OBJECTIVES 3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) one of the methamphetamine derivatives that affect the reproductive system, has not been well understood. Many young people are consumers of drugs such as MDMA that can affect their reproductive capability. Apoptosis is the main mechanism for male infertility. Pentoxifylline (PTX) increases cAMP intracellularly and reduces tumor necrosis fact...

Speech data has the potential to become a powerful tool to provide quantitative information about emotion beyond that achieved by subjective assessments. Based on this concept, we investigate the use of speech to identify effects in subjects under the influence of two different drugs: Oxytocin (OT) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as ecstasy. We extract a set of informat...

This article gives a brief account of a two-year experience with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry methods developed for the analysis of opiates (morphine, codeine, heroin and 6-acetylmorphine), cocaine, methadone, and amphetamines (amphetamine; methamphetamine; 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine--MDA, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine--MDMA, Ecstasy) in hair. The methods developed were repro...

In less than 50 years the number of MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine or Ecstasy) users in the United States has gone from zero to nearly three million. For all of its popularity, very little is known about MDMA’s probable mechanism of action, or the mechanisms by which it causes death and disability. Even less is known about this drug’s checkered past, including dangerous plans by variou...

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a serotonergic neurotoxin which has widespread use in drug abusers due to its effect of increased energy level, heightened sense of “closeness” with other people and overall mood enhancement [1]. MDMA known as ecstasy or molly is a synthetic psychoactive drug with both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties [2]. It produces an energizing effect, dist...

Cell-mediated immune response after the administration of two repeated doses of 100 mg 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) at 4-hour and 24-hour intervals was evaluated in two randomised, double-blind and cross-over clinical trials conducted in healthy male MDMA consumers. MDMA produced a time-dependent decrease in the CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio due to a decrease in the number of CD4 T-helper ce...

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; "ecstasy") is a psychoactive drug structurally related to other phenylisopropylamines acting as stimulants or hallucinogens in humans. Although MDMA has a pharmacological identity of its own, the distinction of its acute effects from those of stimulants or even hallucinogens is controversial. In this work, dose-response curves (0.25, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, and 10...

BACKGROUND The compound 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a potent monoamine releaser that produces an acute euphoria in most individuals. METHODS In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, balanced-order study, MDMA was orally administered to 25 physically and mentally healthy individuals. Arterial spin labeling and seed-based resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) were used to p...