Behavior Changes of MDMA :: Illegal Drugs Medical Psychology Ecstasy Essays

Behavior Changes of MDMAThe secondary effects on port ar expressed in several ways that differ from maven person to the next. These effects back tooth veer from memory impairment and anxiety, to notion and mood swings. They are a direct result of the chemical changes inside the body that occur when someone uses deification. I will discuss the range of effects in more detail, with explanations that get to the root causes for each.One of the major(ip) behavior changes, after the effects of the drug have worn off, is a symptom of the reduced levels of serotonin in the reason. As ecstasy infiltrates the fountainhead tissues, its effects cause the brain to produce copious amounts of serotonin. Following such an extreme release of this neurotransmitter, the brain goes through of period of time in which it has a below normal level of serotonin. This reduced level creates wonderful levels of anxiety in drug users, and can often result in panic attacks that persist for sev eral months following the use of the drug. However, it is important to note that, match to a study from the European Journal of Pharmacology (Gurtman, et al, 2002) whether such effects are a direct result of MDMA use is, at present, uncertain. This admission goes to show that correlation doesnt mean causation, and that until further research can be done we can only speculate about the kind between the two.Another side effect, that is reported to be affected by the levels of serotonin in the brain, is that of memory functioning. Several different areas of memory are included in this assertion, including cognitive capacity, recall over time, and planning ability. It is suggested that hard users, when compared to a control group, have a harder time with primary areas of brain functioning that relate to memory. In a study conducted at the University of Cologne, in Germany (Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, et. al, 2004), research indicates that, findings of relatively low memory performance a ssociated with heavy ecstasy use have been relatively consistent across different studies and user populations. This assertion is fairly recent in the literature, which would suggest that the findings have taken note of the broad range of studies that came before it. With that said, its hard to ignore the judgement that a drug that induces such euphoric effects on the learning ability of an