None of this is meant to encourage the use of MDMA because drugs are bad. Winners don’t use drugs. - William S. Sessions, Director, FBI
I’ve heard conflicting reports about the neurotoxicity of MDMA and I’d like to know more about it as well as possible harm reduction means. Many studies seem to conflate the effects of MDMA itself with the effects of behaviors which many MDMA users take part in and I’d like to untangle the two as far as possible.
Animal testing has shown MDMA neurotoxicity. Animal testing often involves very high doses in order to magnify subtle effects. If neurotoxicity is subject to threshold effects, it may not follow that non-ridiculous doses are still neurotoxic. To make an analogy, being subjected to a force of 1 G for 100 seconds is just fine, 10 Gs for 10 seconds will make you pass out and 100 Gs for 1 second will kill you even though it’s the same number of G seconds. So, what does MDMA neurotoxicity look like for doses of about 100mg with infrequent forays into 200-300mg?
I’ve also heard that high body heat is associated with neurotoxicity. MDMA is typically used in raves. From what I understand, taking MDMA in raves usually involves taking multiple high doses and energetically dancing for hours around tens or hundreds of other people also energetically dancing in crowded nightclubs or disused buildings with insufficient ventilation and cooling, often in summer. Under those conditions, it’s no wonder that heat would be a problem. Is there data about the neurotoxicity of low or middling (50 to 150mg) doses at 20-25 Celcius temperature?
Long-term exposure has been linked to brain damage. Have studies tried to separate long term use at moderate doses and low body temperature vs long-term use of high doses in raves/high heat situations?
What other elements can influence the level of neurotoxicity?
Are there other ways in which MDMA can be harmful? If so, what elements can influence the level of harm?