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Cambridge (pte015/04.03.2005/11:00) - Heavy ecstasy use is linked to an increase in depressive symptoms in some people, a new study suggests. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, a team of scientists from Cambridge University http://www.cam.ac.uk studied 124 people and found that those with a certain genetic make-up showed greater signs of depression after using the drug. According to the scientists, whose work was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, it could show how vulnerable ecstasy users are to long-term psychiatric problems.
Up to two million ecstasy tablets are taken in England each week. According to the researchers, heavy users, such as the people they studied, would probably be using ecstasy every week. Previous studies have shown that ecstasy users may experience an unpleasant lowering of mood for up to three days after taking the drug. There have also been suggestions that ecstasy can cause episodes of severe depression. It is widely known that ecstasy affects serotonin, a key brain chemical in the regulation of mood and emotion.
The Cambridge team of scientists examined 66 ecstasy users, 30 cannabis users and 28 healthy volunteers who had not used any drug. They looked at the gene, which controls serotonin receptors in the brain. Everyone has two copies of each gene, and there are two possible versions which people can carry - they can either be classes as ll, ls or ss. They also used a recognised depression measurement scale to assess people, and carried out emotion recognition computer tests, where people are asked to respond rapidly to happy or sad words. 60 per cent of people who had the ss version were assessed as having at least mild depression. They also scored worst on the emotional processing tests. Non-drug users with the ss type displayed no such problems. No differences were seen among cannabis users who belonged to the different genetic groups either.
"There is evidence here that ecstasy use can result in depression in some vulnerable people," said Jonathan Roiser, based at the US National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda. According to Roiser, people were unlikely to know what genotype they were, and therefore if they were at high risk. "There is some evidence that people with the ss genotype have more family members who are depressed. People with the ss type have also been associated with depression in response to stressful life events, such as losing a family member or a job," he continued. "It may be that ecstasy is another type of stress, albeit one which has a more direct effect on the brain. Although this research has looked at heavy users, if people who are casual users have that kind of family history, they should be careful about continuing to take ecstasy," he added.
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