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Ecstasy Makes People Bond Better, Says an Australian Study
Ectasy, the 'love drug' might be frowned upon.
Dancing at all - night raves combined with heat, heavier sweating, and
failure to drink enough fluids can produce enormous harm. Ecstasy
interferes with the body's ability to regulate temperature. It has been
involved in deaths due to kidney or cardiovascular failure brought on by
a very high body temperature and dehydration, campaigners could warn.
But a new study suggests that the drug causes a brain surge of
oxytocin—the hormone that helps bond couples, as well as mothers to
their babies.
Iain McGregor at the University of Sydney studied the effects of ecstasy
in rats, which like people become more sociable on the drug.
'It's very characteristic behaviour. They lie next to each other and
chill out,' McGregor says.
The team gave the rats the equivalent of two to three ecstasy tablets in
an adult human and found that the drug activated oxytocin - containing
neurons in an area of their brains called the hypothalamus.
When they gave the rats a drug that blocked brain receptors for
oxytocin, the increased sociability almost entirely disappeared.
The finding ties in with re****ts from people on ecstasy about how they
feel, McGregor says. Rodent studies have shown a massive surge of
oxytocin after orgasm in males. Earlier research found increased
oxytocin in the blood of people who had taken ecstasy. However, many
drugs increase blood oxytocin without raising it in the brain—something
thought necessary for any 'pro - social' effects.
But McGregor has also revealed that long term consequences of
administering ecstasy turn out to be very if done so in a hot, sweaty
environment.
There is much research to be done on how drugs of abuse affect oxytocin
in the brain, says McGregor. 'What we know at the moment could be
written on the back of a postage stamp.'
Source - Medindia
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