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The Psychological Impact of Ecstasy Use

 

            The MDMA drug known as ecstasy is widely known among the world to be used for recreational purposes (Schifano, Furia, Forza, Minicuci, Bricolo, 1998). Ecstasy has been reported to cause psychopathological consequences such as depression, psychotic disorders, cognitive disturbances and social phobias (Green and Goodwin, 1996). Amongst the people that have scientifically investigated this particular drug, it has been suggested that it will take many years to understand its effects. Three investigations were done the first on 150 patients from different countries, the second was done on 329 individuals from three major cities in Australia and the last was done on a different groups of people from non-users to regular users. The aim of doing these studies was to help better understand the possible psychopathological responses to the use of ecstasy and also if there was a possibility of reversal of the psychological issues, as well as the drug abuse with using more than one drug at a time (Schifano, et al., 1998).
             During a period of five years, 150 individuals who had either taken ecstasy at least once in their life or consecutively, were studied while in an addiction treatment facility. The way that the patients were studied was by the way of a semi-structured interview, also additional information was obtained by talking to relatives and friends, and urine tests were also done. All patients that were a part of this study were both medically examined and a psychiatric history report was done. During the interview a range of questions were asked to do with their life as well as with the history of their drug use, for example marital status, schooling level, occupation status, their age of first consumption, is there a usual place that they take this drug and how much they take. There were quite a few questions regarding their intake of drugs and their response to these drugs for example their moods, sleep pattern and appetite.


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