Casual ecstasy users ‘run risk of muscle-wasting side effects’

PEOPLE who take even small amounts of ecstasy over a prolonged period are putting themselves at risk of muscle-wasting disease, research has found.

Results of more than four years of research by a group of scientists, led by Prof James Heffron of UCC, have shown ecstasy affects the central nervous system and skeletal muscle.

Prof Heffron found the drug targets the receptor protein known as nAChR on the surface of muscles.

Prof Heffron said: “These findings would explain the severe toxic effects of this drug outside the central nervous system, such as the increased body temperature and severe muscle breakdown.”

The research, which has been published online in the American Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, found damage to muscle may be compounded by impurities in the drug.

Prof Heffron undertook a study on ecstasy bought in the street and found between six and 15 compounds, which included caffeine and paracetamol.

“Caffeine in itself is normally okay but it causes increases in muscle tension and transient increases in blood pressure,” he said.

Even those who take small amounts of ecstasy can be open to muscle damage.

“There are a lot of variations in susceptibility between different people which could (in some) cases lead to the activation process of the degradation of muscle,” he said.

The research, carried out with Prof Lehmann-Horn of the University of Ulm in Germany, was prompted by the fact that many people who had overdosed had very high body temperatures. Prof Heffron thought this might prove a link to attacks on skeletal muscle.

Side effects also included irregular spontaneous muscle contraction, muscle pain, cramps and spasm of the neck and jaw muscle.

Prof Heffron said less frequent, but more severe, effects included acidification and breakdown of muscle.