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Ecstasy Linked With Shrinkage of Memory

by Dr. Trupti Shirole on Apr 7 2011 7:30 PM

 Ecstasy Linked With Shrinkage of Memory
Long term use of Ecstasy runs the risk of causing damage to the brain leading to significant memory loss, says a study by experts at the Academic Research Centre in Amsterdam.
During the study, researchers compared the size of brains among people who have used over 250 tablets of Ecstasy over 6and1/2-years and 7-participants who have never taken this drug. It was found that long term use of this Class-A drug causes hippocampus (shrinking of the brain’s memory store) by about 10%. It was seen that on an average the overall proportion of grey matter was 4.6% lower among Ecstasy users. Alzheimer sufferers have smaller hippocampuses.

This study has been published by the British Medical Journal. However it has been dismissed by Professor David Nutt, the Government’s former chief drugs adviser on the grounds that the research lacked enough subjects to provide ‘definitive evidence’.


Source-Medindia


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