Executive functioning of cognition and emotion in chronic MDMA (ecstasy) users

Abstract

Drugs of abuse produce widespread effects on the structure and function of neurons throughout the brain's reward circuitry, and these changes are believed to underlie the long-lasting phenotypes that characterize addiction. Ecstasy (3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a drug often in the headlines owing to concerns about its contribution to the death of young people and also to whether its widespread use will result in an ‘epidemic’ of people with cognitive problems later in life. To date, most studies have investigated the effects of Ecstasy on adult animals. Although loss of serotonergic neurons in non-human primates has had a powerful impact on how the danger of ecstasy is perceived, whether it occurs in humans remains controversial.