Ecstasy effects

Ecstasy effects on neurotransmitter which increases heart rate and blood pressure.

Ecstasy side effects 

The most common primary ecstasy side effects reported by users (according to NIDA -National Institute on Drug Abuse. USA) include:

  • alteration in consciousness
  • increased energy and endurance
  • increased desire, drive and motivation
  • increased alertness, awareness, and wakefulness
  • extreme mood lift with accompanying euphoria
  • improved self-confidence
  • diminished fear, anxiety, insecurity
  • diminished aggression, hostility, jealousy
  • feelings of empathy, compassion, forgiveness towards others
  • feelings of intimacy and even love for others
  • strong sense of inner peace and self-acceptance
  • ability to discuss normally anxiety-provoking topics with marked ease
  • intensification of all of the bodily senses (sound, touch, smell, vision, hearing)
  • mild psychedelia, consisting of mental imagery and auditory and visual distortions
  • analgesia or decreased pain sensitivity

Once the acute ecstasy effects have worn off,  the phase of comedown shows up.  “After effects” /or “rebound effects” characterized for this phase can be explained by deficit of serotonin in the brain after its excessive use in the first stage.  After effects  typically  last up to 5-7 days, with the exception of depression, which often becomes chronic.

After effects (according to NIDA) include: 

Psychological ecstasy side effects:Ecstasy effects

  • -anxiety and paranoia
  • -irritability
  • -depression
  • -fatigue
  • -dysphoria / discontent
  • -impaired attention, focus, concentration
  • -diminished drive and motivation

Psychological ecstasy side effects:

  • -sleeping disorders (insomnia) 

  • -dizziness
  • -exhaustion
  • -loss of appetite
  • -dry mouth/thirst
  • -muscle pains, usually from excessive physical activity
  • -jaw soreness, as a result of prolonged spasm of the jaw muscles

In case of overdose or altered individual sensitivity to MDMA potentially dangerous stimulant psychosis (or hyper-serotonin syndrome) comes out, the symptoms of which are the following (according to NIDA):

 

 Psychological  side effects:

  • -anxiety, paranoia, panic attacks

  • -disorientation, confusion
  • -acute delirium, insanity
  • -hallucinations, delusions
  • -derealization, depersonalization
  • -hypervigilance
  • -increased sensitivity to perceptual stimuli, accompanied by significantly increased threat detection                                                                                                                                                                   --hypomania or full-blown mania
  • -thought disorder, disorganized thinking
  • -cognitive and memory impairment potentially to the point of retrograde or anterograde amnesia

 Physical  side effects:

  • - seizures, spontaneous intense muscle twitching

  • -hyperreflexia
  • -rapid breathing  or shortness of breath
  • -severe chest pain, pulmonary hypertension
  • -irregular heart beating, abnormal electrical activity of the heart
  • -circulatory shock,  cardiogenic shock
  • -vasculitis,  destruction of blood vessels
  • -cardiac dysfunction, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, heart failure
  • -frequent fainting,  loss of consciousness due to hemodynamic instability
  • -brain hemorrhage or ischemic stroke
  • -malignant  hyperthermia, potentially resulting in multiple organ failure and cerebral edema
  • -different genesis coma and/or death

 

CHRONIC USE AND DAMAGING EFFECTS OF ECSTASY ON THE BRAIN

Effects of ecstasyThe biggest concern about effects of ecstasy, as it has been shown in numerous research in primates, is that ecstasy (MDMA) actually kills neurons which produce serotonin. As it was mentioned above serotonin is a vital neurotransmitter. People who chronically experience insufficient amounts of serotonin in the brain present a variety of behavioral and psychological problems, including, but not limited to, depression, confusion, self-destructiveness, chronic fatigue, mood swings, violence, irritability, aggression,  sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety. These problems can occur soon after taking the drug or, sometimes, even days or weeks after taking MDMA (ecstasy).

Chronic users of ecstasy perform more poorly than nonusers on certain types of cognitive or memory tasks.

Reviews of  on memory research show that 70–80% of MDMA (ecstasy) users suffer significant short-term and long-term memory impairment. Although some of these effects of ecstasy may be due to the use of other drugs in combination with MDMA.

Research in nonhuman primates showed that exposure to MDMA for only 4 days caused damage to serotonin production that was still evident for few years later. 

MDMA is a neurotoxic substance and its consumption sooner or later inevitably leads to detrimental, sometimes irreversible  changes in human brain.

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