Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Newsday - July 1, 1988
Laurie Garrett
The so-called designer drug MDMA was outlawed in 1985, following a study that showed small doses produced brain damage in rats and mice, although some experts say it can have therapeutic benefits. At the time, it was estimated that more than 30,000 capsules of MDMA were sold every month in the United States.
In this latest study, reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. George Ricaurte led a team that injected very small doses of the drug into three species of monkeys. After two weeks the animals' brains were dissected, and Ricaurte discovered large-scale destruction of nerve endings and nerve cell bodies. "The monkey turned out to be much more sensitive than the rat responding to much smaller doses, doses exactly in the range that people have been taking recreationally in the U.S.," Ricaurte said. He said his team believes that the human brain is far more susceptible to damage.
The nerve cells targeted by MDMA are those that usually respond to a vital brain chemical called serotonin. "Serotonin seems to play a role in sleep, mood, cognition, aggression and food intake," Ricaurte said. "So the instant you take a drug that affects serotonin, you have affected all the vital functions" of a human being.
Some experts argue that MDMA - or a less toxic derivative - can have beneficial effects in psychotherapy. Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University has never tried the drug on his patients, but has taken it himself. So have several psychiatric colleagues, he said, "and every one is convinced it is therapeutically beneficial. They observe enhanced freedom from defensiveness, enhanced empathy, capacity to get in touch with feelings which are not ordinarily available to them, and many believe MDMA enhances their capacity to achieve insight."
Medically supervised use of the drug is currently prohibited, but Grinspoon believes MDMA, or another, less toxic drug, could be the key to opening up the highly suppressed patient.
Ricaurte says he shares Grinspoon's interest in finding a less-toxic drug with the same therapeutic effects.
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