ecstacys neurotoxicity

ronbyrne2005

a friend of mine took one ecstacy pill(his first) in 1998 and became really paranoid (on the night he took it ) and somewhat depressed for a few months afterwords but not too bad and he continued to function pretty well.then over a year later he was drunk and took another ecstacy pill when offered to him and again became very paranoid etc,in the week after he says he developed severe panic attacks and became badly depressed,he's been on and off medication for depression ever since and is afraid to stop taking the medication as he thinks the ecstacy has permanently damaged his serotonergic system even though the medication only barely helps him and he cant work because of its side effects.i tell him that one pill couldnt have caused all this and that a lot of his problems are psychological. i have read that ecstacy can be neurotoxic but i have never heard of it causing permanent depression/anxiety after one pill. surely even if the pill caused a long term reduction in serotonin ,would there not be an upregulation of serotonin receptors to compensate ???

Enii

From the sound of all of the above, the taking of the ectasy was a trigger for all of your friends psychological problems. Maybe if he hadn't taken it he would have been fine or maybe something else would have triggered his current illness, such as someone dying or losing his job.

DrIndy

I refer you to this thread - and well explained by John2.

http://bie.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054857634