Pubdate: Sat, 12 May 2001
Source: New Scientist (UK)
Copyright: New Scientist, RBI Limited 2001
Contact:  http://www.newscientist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/294
Author: Andy Coghlan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

FROM MOTHER WITH LOVE

Now there is hard evidence that ecstasy damages developing brains

Pregnant women who take ecstasy risk causing long-term damage to the brains 
of their children, a study on rats has suggested.

"Now we have a real identified risk, whereas before all we could do was 
advise pregnant mothers not to take drugs as a precautionary measure," says 
Charles Vorhees, head of the team that made the discovery at the University 
of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio.

"This is a real landmark study," says Lynn Singer, a paediatrics expert at 
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. 
"It's the first developmental study suggesting ecstasy exposure can affect 
basic learning processes."

Vorhees's team attempted to mimic in rats the effects of ecstasy on the 
most important stages of human brain development in the last three months 
of pregnancy.

They gave half the rats ecstasy twice a day for the first 10 days of life. 
At this age, they are at the same stage of brain development as a human 
fetus between 24 and 30 weeks old. The other half were given ecstasy when 
they were between 10 and 20 days old, equivalent to the last six weeks of 
human pregnancy. Other rats were given salt solution as a control.

When the rats reached maturity 60 days later, Vorhees gave them standard 
tests to measure brain function. The only rats to underperform were those 
that had received ecstasy 10 to 20 days after birth. This tallied with 
damage to the hippocampus, the part of the brain vital for memory.

In one test to measure spatial awareness and sense of direction, the rats 
had to locate a submerged platform in a pool. The rats who had received 
ecstasy later in their development performed between 30 and 50 per cent 
worse than controls. In people, this might manifest itself as a poor sense 
of direction, says Vorhees.

In a second test to measure memorydependent learning, rats had to swim and 
climb their way out of a labyrinth of water channels. Again, those given 
the drug later performed worst, making between 25 and 40 per more errors 
than controls. In people, this might affect their ability to carry out 
sequences of tasks, such as assembling flatpacked furniture or following a 
recipe.

"What was surprising was that ecstasy has such a large effect," says 
Vorhees. But when he looked at the brains of the animals afterwards he 
failed to find the telltale ecstasy damage usually found in adult rats, 
which is caused by high levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Vorhees believes this may be because, in the developing brain, serotonin 
helps brain cells to grow connections rather than acting as a 
neurotransmitter. "It must work through a different pathway," he says.

Singer has done similar studies suggesting that cocaine use by pregnant 
mothers impairs the intelligence of their children. She says that studies 
like Vorhees's in rats are usually a good indicator of what happens in 
people. She and a group of British researchers at the University of East 
London are planning a follow-up study in pregnant women who take ecstasy.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager