The pharmacology and toxicology effects of ecstasy

Essay by moman77College, UndergraduateA-, June 2005

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

Ecstasy is a drug that became very popular by youths in the late 1980's. It was first discovered in the early 1900's by a German company called Merck. However, since he (who are you referring to? who is 'he?' your previous sentence talks about a company) did not market the drug nothing came of it. Ecstasy was than rediscovered in the early 1960's as a drug affective enhancer that could be used for patients who require therapy. Ecstasy was also tested by the US military, so it could be used as a truth drug. Today ecstasy is used worldwide at parties and clubs by youths because it makes them dance faster and longer. All the good, bad and neutral effects that ecstasy causes can be seen on the table below.

Positive Effects Neutral Effects Negative Effects

Loss of appetite Muscle tension

An increased willingness to communicate Eye jiggling Headaches, dizziness and loss of balance

An increase in energy hallucinations Difficulty in concentrating

Feelings of love and empathy Shivering Short term memory lose

Urge to hug and kiss people Teeth chattering Hyperthermia

Increased awareness of senses Increased heart rate Dehydration

Feelings of comfort and closeness Changes in body temperature Seizure and epilepsy which could result in a coma

Extreme mood lift Increased blood pressure Nausea and vomiting

Hyponatremia

Hangovers which could last for days

Depression and fatigue which could last for days

death

Seizure

The drug ecstasy has a scientific name of 3, 4 - methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA). MDMA is a phenylethylamine, characterized as both a stimulant and a hallucinogen which basically means MDMA has the structure of C8H11N. The picture below shows the structure of MDMA and how it is made up.

MDMA is a ring-substituted structure and it has methylenedioxy (-O-CH2-O-) group attached to positions 3 and...