Ecstasy use may lead to depression

By John von Radowitz

A single experiment with the popular dance drug may leave a person vulnerable to future mental problems, according to new evidence.

Researchers urged people to stay away from the drug, even though many users regard it as a harmless weekend recreation.

Psychologists from the London Metropolitan University found that individuals who had tried ecstasy on only a few occasions had depression levels four times higher than those who had taken a range of other drugs but not ecstasy.

Although they did not qualify as clinically depressed the findings suggested taking ecstasy left them susceptible to major problems triggered by stress or emotional turbulence.

Lynn Taurah, who carried out the research with Dr Chris Chandler, said: "People often think taking ecstasy just once or twice won't matter, but what we're seeing is evidence that if you take ecstasy a couple of times you do damage to your brain that later in life will make you more vulnerable.

"Many of these people are working professionals and you can imagine if they have a problem or a bit of stress in their life their depression levels could go up. Taking ecstasy is really not a good idea," she said.

The researchers presented their findings at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday.

They studied 519 volunteers, including some who were current or past ecstasy users and others who had either never taken drugs or taken a number of drugs other than ecstasy, including alcohol and cannabis.

Ecstasy users were broken down into those who had used the drug more or less than 20 times. The less frequent users ranged between people who had only ever had half a tablet and those who had taken up to 19 pills, while the more frequent users included ecstasy veterans who had tried the drug 3,000 times or more.

Participants were given a standard psychological questionnaire designed to discover to what extent they suffered from depression. Recording a figure of 25 indicated that they were clinically depressed.

Non-ecstasy users, ihad average scores of about four. But the scores of even non-frequent ecstasy users, reached levels of 16 or 17.

For the frequent users, score values of up to 28put them in the category of clinically depressed even though they were generally not aware of it.

Ms Taurah said one alarming aspect of the research was that even ecstasy users with high depression ratings did not appear to realise they were depressed.

"It's very worrying because so many people regard ecstasy as a safe drug, and every year more and more people are taking it," she said.