MDMA, The Key Ingredient In Ecstasy, Makes You Nicer But Not Trustworthy

Ask someone who does ecstasy regularly and they’ll almost always describe the high as something that puts in a state of ‘happiness’ or a ‘trance’. The main ingredient in ecstasy, MDMA, now has more effects than what was previously known about it.?

MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy, makes humans more likely to cooperate—but only with trustworthy people—said the researchers. It is the first study into how the drug impacts our willingness to help others.?

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Despite its status in Britain as a Class A drug, MDMA is widely consumed due to the heightened sense of energy, empathy and pleasure it arouses in users.

It contains neurotransmitters—chemical messengers for the brain—that are known to be linked to behaviour and mood, but scientists currently understand very little about how these affect social interactions.

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The research team found that participants on recreational MDMA were more willing to cooperate.?

"We thought MDMA might make you think that other people are more trustworthy. And we were wrong," Mitul Mehta, from King's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, told AFP.

"Actually it didn't change one bit what you thought of the other person, but it did change your behaviour towards them.”

"It's not that MDMA is giving you rose-tinted glasses and therefore you're behaving differently, it's actually keeping your glasses clear and you still think an untrustworthy person is untrustworthy."?

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The research team found that MDMA increased activity in the superior temporal cortex and mid-cingulate cortex, two areas of the brain known to be important for empathising with the thoughts and intentions of others.

They also observed noticeable differences in activity in the right anterior insula—a section of brain important in appraising risk and uncertainty—when participants on MDMA processed the behaviour of trustworthy and untrustworthy players.

"In other words, MDMA did not make participants naively trusting of others," said Mehta.

"For the first time ever we are showing that MDMA isn't having a global effect on brain behaviour, it's actually having quite a specific effect and that's really useful."?

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The team stated that their findings could help treat psychiatric conditions, such as PTSD, as stated in The Journal of Neuroscience.

"Patients with psychiatric disorders have a lot of difficulties with social interactive behaviour. We now can ask the question about what specifically you have trouble with in social behavior—is it your behaviour, or how you evaluate others?" said Mehta.

Despite being legally classified in Britain as a schedule—meaning it is deemed to have no medical use—MDMA has been given Breakthrough Therapy designation by the US Food and Drug Administration.

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"It's about access to treatment that is so promising that it seems unethical not to give people access," said Mehta.?

"There's a renewed interest in MDMA, how it works and how it affects the brain.”

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It's currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials for treating PTSD and Mehta said the drug should be more widely available for medical research.