![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by djmmm on September 12, 2003, at 15:57:57
from
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/dll/ricaurte_recant.htmlScientists at Johns Hopkins University who last year published a frightening and controversial report suggesting that a single evening's use of the illicit drug ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson's disease are retracting their research in its entirety, saying the drug they used in their experiments was not ecstasy after all.
The retraction, to be published in next Friday's issue of the journal Science, has reignited a smoldering and sometimes angry debate over the risks and benefits of the drug, also known as MDMA.
The drug is popular at all-night raves and other venues for its ability to reduce inhibitions and induce expansive feelings of open-heartedness. But some studies have indicated that the drug can at least temporarily damage neurons that use the mood-altering brain chemical serotonin. Some users also have spiked fevers, which rarely have proven fatal.
Last year's research, involving monkeys and baboons, purported to show that three modest doses of ecstasy -- the amount a person might take in a one-night rave -- could cause serious damage to another part of the brain: neurons that use the brain chemical dopamine.
Two of 10 animals died quickly after their second or third dose of the drug, and two others were too sick to take the third dose. Six weeks later, dopamine levels in the surviving animals were still down 65 percent. That led Hopkins team leader George Ricaurte and his colleagues to conclude that users were playing Russian roulette with their brains.
Advocates of ecstasy's therapeutic potential, including a number of scientists and doctors who believe it may be useful in treating post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric conditions, criticized the study. They noted that the drug was given in higher doses than people commonly take and was administered by injection, not by mouth. They wondered why large numbers of users were not dying or growing deathly ill from the drug, as the animals did, and why no previous link had been made between ecstasy and Parkinson's despite decades of use and a large number of studies.
The answer to at least some of those questions became clear with the retraction, which is being released by Science on Sunday evening but was obtained independently by The Washington Post. Because of a mislabeling of vials, the scientists wrote, all but one of the animals were injected not with ecstasy but with methamphetamine, or "speed" -- a drug known to damage the dopamine system.
The researchers said they discovered the mistake when follow-up tests gave conflicting results, and they offered evidence that the tubes were mislabeled by the supplier, identified by sources as Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina. A spokesman for the company said last night that he did not know whether the company had erred.
The error has renewed charges that government-funded scientists, and Ricaurte in particular, have been biased in their assessment of ecstasy's risks and potential benefits.
Rick Doblin, president of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a Sarasota, Fla.-based group that funds studies on therapeutic uses of mind-altering drugs and is seeking permission to conduct human tests of MDMA, said the evidence of serotonin system damage is weak.
"The largest and best-controlled study of the effect of MDMA on serotonin showed no long-term effects in former users and minimal to no effects in current users," he said.
Una McCann, one of the Hopkins scientists, said she regretted the role the false results may have played in a debate going on last year in Congress and within the Drug Enforcement Administration over how to deal with ecstasy abuse.
"I feel personally terrible," she said. "You spend a lot of time trying to get things right, not only for the congressional record but for other scientists around the country who are basing new hypotheses on your work and are writing grant proposals to study this."
But she and Ricaurte emphasized last night that the retraction had not changed their feelings about the danger of taking ecstasy.
"I still wouldn't recommend it to anybody," McCann said.
Posted by Phil on September 12, 2003, at 21:50:30
In reply to Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study, posted by djmmm on September 12, 2003, at 15:57:57
They made a good decision not to become pharmacists.
Posted by JonW on September 14, 2003, at 0:57:04
In reply to Re: Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study » djmmm, posted by Phil on September 12, 2003, at 21:50:30
Posted by Phil on September 14, 2003, at 4:08:07
In reply to lol! (nm) » Phil, posted by JonW on September 14, 2003, at 0:57:04
Posted by yabba on October 4, 2003, at 15:17:20
In reply to Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study, posted by djmmm on September 12, 2003, at 15:57:57
Don't some ecstasy pills have speed in them? I thought that's what caused you to clench your teeth. Also when I did E sometimes I would act super hyper for a little while like I was on speed. In fact I had a really hard time keeping myself from jabbering the entire time I was on E although the other people I was with didn't have that problem which means it might have been attributed to my ADD or something. It seems like the ecstasy pills get mixed in with other drug components since some of the pills cause lsd-like hallucinations as well. Maybe MDMA doesn't have much of a long term effect but as long as the drug is kept illegal there will probobly be a high chance that the pills wont be created properly.
Posted by Caleb462 on October 6, 2003, at 21:49:17
In reply to Re: Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study, posted by yabba on October 4, 2003, at 15:17:20
> Don't some ecstasy pills have speed in them? I thought that's what caused you to clench your teeth. Also when I did E sometimes I would act super hyper for a little while like I was on speed. In fact I had a really hard time keeping myself from jabbering the entire time I was on E although the other people I was with didn't have that problem which means it might have been attributed to my ADD or something. It seems like the ecstasy pills get mixed in with other drug components since some of the pills cause lsd-like hallucinations as well. Maybe MDMA doesn't have much of a long term effect but as long as the drug is kept illegal there will probobly be a high chance that the pills wont be created properly.
MDMA pills are notoriously impure. They often do contain some form of speed - amphetamine or methamphetamine, as well as non-amphetamine stimulants like ephedrine and caffeine. You can also find everything from DXM to aspirin in some MDMA pills.
However, MDMA itself is a variation on the methamphetamine structure, thus it has some speed-like effects by itself .
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Substance Use | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.