MDMA Question...?

Question

You probably know that this drug is the main active ingredient used in Ecstasy... but I read some stuff about experiments conducted on mice that showed the drug causing 'Hardening of the heart wall'!!
Naturally, i'm a bit concerned about this..

The question is, does anyone know or can speculate how long you'd have to be using this drug for this to be a real concern.
I'm not overly fussed about the other problem with messing with the seretonin receptors, just about the whole heart issue!

I know this is a tricky/silly question to be askin the general public, but I certainly won't be able to ask anyone else :(

Answer 1

I think what your talking about is for indirect serotonin agonists, like MDMA, to cause valvular heart disease AKA cardiac valvopathy.

Activation of the serotonin 5-HT2B receptor causes valvular cells to grow. This increased thickness of the heart valves (AKA cardiac fibrosis) then leads to pulmonary hypertension.

This effect happened to people taking the now banned anti-obesity drug fenfluramine. Fenfluramine also caused increase serotonin like MDMA.

An important difference however is that people who took fenfluramine, took it every day. People who take MDMA generally only take it once every few weeks at the most. So it probably wont be a problem for most users. It is also worth noting that no MDMA induced cardiac valvopathy has been reported in the medical literature

Conclusion: MDMA has the possibility to cause cardiac fibrosis, however, it seems unlikely that occasional use will do this.