Jack W. Lipton, PhD, a neuroscientist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, demonstrated that fetal exposure in rats to the drug Ecstasy during a period analogous to the first trimester in humans causes changes in the young rat's brain chemistry and behavior. The study was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Ecstasy also is known as MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine.

"The limited data that exist suggest that women who use Ecstasy stop taking it when they learn they are pregnant," says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the NIDA. "But many of the animal studies that linked this drug to neurological changes and learning impairments were conducted in situations analogous to the third trimester in humans. Thus, this study sought to investigate a more true-to-life situation by looking at neurobiological changes caused by Ecstasy early in pregnancy."

The researchers injected the drug twice daily from day 14 through day 20 of pregnancy. An equal number of pregnant rats were given sham injections of saline twice daily during the same period as a placebo. The most striking finding was that 21-day-old Ecstasy exposed rats had a 502% increase in the number of dopamine neuron fibers in the frontal cortex as compared to controls. The frontal cortex is important in planning, impulse control and attention.

Similar but smaller increases in dopaminergic fiber density were also evident in the striatum -- an area involved in movement and reward and the nucleus accumbens -- the primary site of action of rewarding stimuli. The investigators believe that this hyperinnervation is either due to MDMA-induced reductions in the normal cell loss that occurs during fetal development, or
'"/>

Contact: Chris Martin
cmartin@rsh.net
312-942-7820
Rush University Medical Center
29-Aug-2003