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Psychiatric disorders in Ecstasy (MDMA) users: a literature review focusing on personal predisposition and drug history
Author(s) -
Soar K.,
Turner J. J. D.,
Parrott A. C.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/hup.350
Subject(s) - ecstasy , mdma , psychiatry , family history , psychology , hallucinogen , psychiatric history , medicine , clinical psychology , anxiety , radiology
3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy) has been implicated in the onset of a number of psychological disorders and associated with a number of psychiatric symptoms that have persisted after cessation of the drug. This paper is a review of the published psychiatric case studies from the last 10 years involving MDMA. Only 24% of patients had a previous psychiatric history and 34% had a psychiatric illness amongst first degree relatives. The percentage of patients not having had a personal or family history of psychiatric illness and the temporal relationship between MDMA ingestion and the experience of recurring symptoms strongly suggest a causal relationship between the drug and neuropsychiatric manifestations. Further supporting evidence comes from several studies using non‐clinical samples. Ecstasy users that don't present themselves in healthcare settings as having clinical symptoms have significantly higher scores on certain subscales of the SCL‐90 compared with Ecstasy‐naive controls, with higher pathology scores in heavier Ecstasy users. The full‐blown psychiatric cases may represent the broad end of this problematic spectrum. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.