1. Ecstasy Damages Brain Serotonin Neurons Presented by Michelle Dupre Biology Department Eastern Connecticut State University

2. Positron emission tomographic evidence of toxic effect of MDMA (Ecstasy) on brain serotonin neurons in human beings. Article written by: U.D McCann, Z. Szabo, U. Scheffel, R. F. Dannals, G. A. Ricaurte The Lancet 1998 352: 1433-37

3. What do we know about Ecstasy?

4. Transport of serotonin

5. Previous findings… Animals show losses in serotonin markers Doses parellel human doses Previous studies use cerebrospinal fluid

6. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Detects status of neurons in the brain Attaches to face masks 11 C Labels serotonin transporter Neuroimaging technique

7. The Experiment Experimental group Control group PET scanning

8. What were they looking for? 1) Differences in serotonin transport sites. 2) The relationship between MDMA use and binding. 3) Overall brain activity

9. MDMA users have lower densities of 5-HT transporter sites. Direct relationship between MDMA use and decrease in 5-HT binding.

10. What does this all mean????

11. DEATH 16 years old 23 years old 18 years old