In a first study of its kind, a researcher has demonstrated how taking hair samples from an individual can already be a good indicator of whether he or she has used ecstasy even months ago.
Lead researcher Luke Downey from Swinburne University of Technology investigated the effects of the use of MDMA (a generic form of the drug) on the levels of a stress hormone - called cortisol - that is interestingly accumulates in a human's hair. "Looking at cortisol in hair is a way for us to see how stressed we've been in the past," says Downey in the press release.
Together with MDMA expert, Professor Andy Parrott from Swansea University in the UK, Dr. Downey recruited a total of 101 volunteers - 51 of which were non-users, 27 were light ecstasy users, and 23 were heavy users. Three centimeters of hair from the scalp was taken from each participant to assess their levels of stress hormone over the course of three months.
With their analysis, they found heavy and light users of ecstasy to have significant increased levels of cortisol than those of non-users, indicating that they experienced more stress over the three-month period. Moreover, stress levels of light ecstasy users were 50 percent higher than the control group, and heavy users showed cortisol levels that were four times higher than light users.
Memory performance was also assessed in all participants and found poorer performance in the ecstasy users. However, the extent to which the memories of ecstasy users were affected did not correlate with the cortisol levels measured, indicating that no association can be drawn between cortisol levels and cognitive dysfunction caused by using the drug, ScienceAlert writes.
"This increased experience of stress appears not to be the mechanism that produces the memory deficit," says Dr. Downey.
A follow-up study is now conducted by Dr. Downey to examine the effects of MDMA on reactivity to stressful situations using both hair and saliva samples, and to estimate the stress levels evident in all ecstasy users.
The study appears in the journal Human Psychopharmacology.
