MDMA - a new high in research?

MDMA seems to be keeping clubbers and scientists alike on their toes at the moment, with research into the recreational drug on the rise. Despite the law heavily restricting drug experimentation even within the laboratory, there still seems to be an unrelenting interest into the potential medical benefits of many of the illegal substances out there. With new research published this week, it may only be a matter of time before drugs such as ecstasy are no longer restricted to the dives and dens of those partying past dawn.

MDMA, or more widely known as ecstasy, induces the release of serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain, and delivers feelings of euphoria, diminishes anxiety and causes mild psychedelia. Often the drug will be taken with other neuroactive substances like LSD or magic mushrooms, but when taken alone its effects are usually felt around an hour after consumption and last for a further three to six hours.

A recent study carried out here at Imperial College has revealed the first images of brain activity experienced when taking MDMA. The images, published from a project led by Professor Nutt, show just how the drug affects various areas of the brain and provide a new basis to support how MDMA could be used therapeutically.

The images were produced by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and show where and when blood oxygenation levels altered throughout the brain under the influence of MDMA. An increase in bloody oxygenation is indirectly indicative of an increase in neural activity; when an area of the brain is activated, its metabolic demand increases, requiring an increase in oxygenated blood flow to provide glucose to the neurons that need more energy.

25 healthy volunteers, all with at least one experience of MDMA, took the drug under controlled conditions and were simply left to enjoy the ride.

Subjects experienced a reduction in blood flow across the right hippocampus, thought to be responsible for navigation, and the right amygdala that control emotion. The reduction in blood flow across the cerebral cortex in general positively correlated with the intensity of the drug effects felt by the volunteers.

So what does this mean? A reduction in neuronal activity by the amygdala may be related to the sense of euphoria felt when high on MDMA; the ability of the amygdala to harness emotions diminishes and therefore the feeling of elation occurs. Not only that, a reduction in activity of the hippocampus could result in memory impairment; often removal of the hippocampus altogether results in amnesia.

Both the hippocampus and the amygdala are part of a wider brain system, the limbic system, which links emotion and memory together. The research found that MDMA increases the functional connections between the amygdala and the hippocampus, shown by the results of the volunteers being asked to recall their least and most favourite memories while on MDMA.

Those on the drug recalled their favourite memories to be more vivid and emotionally intense, and experienced their worse memories less negatively.

MDMA may therefore be useful in treating those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); if it can make users’ traumatic memories less distressful, it could be used as a therapeutic agent for when PTSD episodes occur. It has been previously found that the connections between the hippocampus and the amygdala are actually weaker in PTSD sufferers, so MDMA may aid to restore functionality between the two and alleviate the symptoms associated with the disorder, even if it is just temporarily.

However, in the UK, research surrounding the drug still remains constricted, politically motivated and indeed controversial. Despite the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs stating in February 2009 that it would recommend downgrading MDMA from a Class A to a Class B drug, the UK Home Office rejected the notion. They did this on the basis that such a reclassification would send the wrong message to young people, and so it remained in the highest Class tier alongside cocaine, heroin, LSD and magic mushrooms.

Aside from the usual class classifications in the UK, drugs are also sorted into ‘Schedules’, numbered from 1 to 5. These outline the way drugs can be used as controlled substances in a pharmaceutical capacity. MDMA falls into the top Schedule, Schedule I, meaning it faces the highest restrictions in scientific experimentation too. These Schedules were set by the UK Home Office, again shoehorning a political framework into the legislation surrounding research and making it exceedingly difficult to access funds and licencing for projects based on high ranking substances.

This new research could hardly be considered as a definitive landmark in neuroscience in that it does have several weaknesses; with a sample size of volunteers that is disappointingly small alongside a high-level of variability in the drug backgrounds of said volunteers, it may raise more questions than it answers.

However, with previous research hinting at the possibility of MDMA being used to treat Parkinson’s disease, various anxiety disorders and even possibly pain in other parts of the body, more research is certainly needed. It may be that softening the legalisation surrounding drug experimentation needs to be done to allow MDMA to reach its full medicinal potential.