Ecstasy ingestion has life-threatening effects such as hyperpyrexia, rhabdomyolysis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, coma, and death. In the present report, we aimed to highlight ecstasy as a rare cause of spontaneous pneumomediastinum and its potential life-threatening effects. A 16-year-old female with dyspnea and chest pain presented to the emergency department. Chest computed tomogr...

OBJECTIVES To determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors among Iranian high school female students in Tehran, capital of Iran. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 2350 female students of 36 high schools from Tehran, were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling to determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors. SPSS- version 13 was employed to conduc...

BACKGROUND Ecstasy is a recreational drug with an anecdotal reputation for safety. However, reports of adverse effects and fatalities have increased in the medical and popular press. METHOD Literature search and review. RESULTS Acute Ecstasy toxicity does not appear to be due to overdose and cannot be solely attributed to the nature of the usual ambient environment. Adverse effects include ...

The recreational use of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy) in humans has been associated with memory impairment. The present study examined whether ecstasy impairs short- and long-term working memory and the pattern of arm entries in rats tested in the 8-arm radial maze with a 2-hr delay. After completing the training session, the rats were given a single dose of ecstasy (1, 2, or 3 mg...

Two case reports of ecstasy abuse and its serious neuropsychiatric complications are presented. The first patient developed a florid paranoid psychosis resembling schizophrenia after repeated long-term recreational ecstasy abuse, and significant alterations with intermittent paroxysmal discharges were found in his electroencephalogram. The second patient showed an atypical paranoid psychosis wi...

AIMS 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) can affect both neurotransmitter and neurohormonal activity. This review will debate the role of the metabolic activation hormone cortisol for the psychobiological effects of ecstasy/MDMA. METHODS The empirical literature on cortisol release following acute MDMA administration and cortisol functioning in drug-free recreational ecstasy/MDMA users w...

Objective. To review performance differences, with meta-analyses, between ecstasy (MDMA) users and non-users on a wider range of tasks requiring processing of visual/spatial information than in our previous narrative review of tasks requiring working memory executive resources. Method. Abstracting databases were searched using the United Kingdom NHS Evidence Health Information Resource. Inclusi...

Users of ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; MDMA) may be at risk of developing MDMA-induced injury to the serotonin (5-HT) system. Previously, there were no methods available for directly evaluating the neurotoxic effects of MDMA in the living human brain. However, development of in vivoneuroimaging tools have begun to provide insights into the effects of ecstasy on the human brain. Si...

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features of paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA; "death") poisoning and to compare these with those of people with self-reported "ecstasy" poisoning. DESIGN Retrospective casenote review. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING 22 patients who presented to the Emergency Department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), a major metropolitan teaching hospital, between 1 January 199...