Diagnostics
Symptoms.
Numbness, tingling, changes in sensation; weakness, heavy feeling of extremities; speech difficulty; garbled speech; slurred speech; thick speech; vision changes; loss of vision in one eye; decreased vision; double vision; sensation that the person or the room is moving (vertigo); loss of balance; lack of coordination; gait changes, staggering; falling (caused by weakness in the legs).
Diagnosis.
You have suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack.
Symptoms.
Allowing the chi to flow, dissolving fear, allowing memories to surface, being temporarily free of neurosis, feeling love, removing defensiveness, allowing indulgence.
Diagnosis.
You have ingested Ecstasy.
August 18th, 2002 at 3:36 pm
Journal of Psychopharmacology. 15(3):181-6, 2001 Sep.
Previous work has indicated recreational use of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) is associated with elevated scores on self-report measures of depression. We sought to examine the long-term effects of consumption on depression in a group of individuals who had consumed large quantities of the drug in the past, but were now leading relatively drug free lives. Respondents to this study (n = 29) had consumed an average of 1.5 ecstasy tablets in the last month, 8.4 in the last 6 months and 23.3 in the last 12 months. The estimated total consumed was 527 tablets, indicating that these respondents were indeed former chronic users of the drug. None of the respondents had consumed ecstasy in the last 14 days. Levels of depression (Beck’s Depression Inventory) were significantly (p < 0.01) elevated compared to a matched non-drug using control group. Within the group of former chronic users, these levels of depression were not significantly affected by current use of alcohol, cannabis or amphetamine, but were positively correlated with an external locus of control (p < 0.05), infrequent but severe- (p < 0.05) and frequent but mild- (p < 0.005) self-report measures of life stress. Multiple regression indicated that levels of frequent but mild life stress (p < 0.005) and the quantity of ecstasy tablets respondents consumed over a 12-h period (p < 0.05) were the only variables that were significant predictors of self-reported levels of depression. The results of this study indicate that former chronic ecstasy users report higher levels of depression than their matched controls.
August 20th, 2002 at 12:05 am
I wonder if the former chronic users would have scored higher on the depression tests prior to becoming chronic users as well. Cigarette smoking is highly correlated with mental illness; but most scientists believe it is more typically the mental illness that leads to nicotine addiction rather than the other way around. I wonder if it is this way with Ecstasy as well, or whether it actually causes depression. The other thing I thought is that after on average 2 a week for a year, a mere 2 week break would probably see the users still in a comedown phase. And so I’d also be interested in seeing results from a longer time period with no intervening use…
August 20th, 2002 at 3:03 pm
Mmmmnn. Perhaps the more interesting article that the Medline search coughed up took the more sociological approach and said, in effect, what with Ecstacy’s being illicit, it makes it really difficult to understand the pros and cons of the drug. Alas, various degrees of dogma.
August 21st, 2002 at 5:16 pm
Or maybe rejoice, various degrees of dogma?
(Or so says the postmodernist in me).
Brad “Make your own truths” Weslake.