An MDMA drug makes you nicer, but not naive: study

Paris (AFP) – MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy, is encouraging more people to cooperate, but only with trusted people, researchers said Monday during the first study on the subject. impact of this drug on our willingness to help others.

Despite its class A drug status in Britain, MDMA is widely consumed because of the increased sense of energy, empathy and pleasure it arouses in users.

It contains neurotransmitters – chemical messengers for the brain – that we know are related to behavior and mood, but scientists understand very little about how they affect social interactions.

Researchers at King & # 39; s College London studied 20 healthy adult men, who were administered a typical dose of MDMA or a placebo tablet for recreational purposes, and then requested to perform a series of tasks during that images of their brain activity were taken with an MRI scanner.

The prisoner's dilemma was one of the psychological exercises that had been given to them – an example of the so-called "game theory" in which an individual is asked to choose between cooperating or competing with another unknown person.

Both players receive an equal share of the points offered if they choose to cooperate, but if a player chooses to fight, they get all the points, while the other player gets nothing. However, they may not get anything if the other player chooses to participate.

The team found that MDMA participants were more willing to cooperate than those receiving the placebo.

But, to their surprise, MDMA users became more cooperative with the players they considered trustworthy, based on the observations of the previous choices of the other player.

"We thought the MDMA might have you believe that others are more trustworthy, and we made a mistake," said AFP Mitul Mehta, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. King.

"In fact, it did not change a little what you thought of the other person, but it changed your behavior towards him.

"It's not that the MDMA gives you pink tinted glasses and that, as a result, you behave differently, it keeps your glasses clear and you continue to think that an untrustworthy person is unworthy." of confidence."

– Clinical tests –

The team found that MDMA increased activity in the upper temporal cortex and the middle cingulate cortex, two areas of the brain recognized as important for empathizing with the thoughts and intentions of others.

They also observed significant differences in activity in the right anterior insula – an important part of the brain in the assessment of risk and uncertainty – when participants under MDMA were treating the behavior reliable and untrustworthy actors.

"In other words, the MDMA did not cause the participants to naively trust others," Mehta said.

"For the first time, we show that MDMA does not have a global effect on brain behavior, but that it actually has a rather specific effect and that it is really useful."

The study team, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, said their findings could help treat psychiatric conditions such as PTSD.

"Patients with psychiatric disorders have a lot of difficulties with social interactive behavior, so we can ask the question of how you have problems with social behavior – is it about your behavior or how you feel about it? do you evaluate the others? "said Mehta.

Although legally listed in Britain as a Schedule 1 drug – which means that it is deemed to have no medical use – the MDMA has been designated Breakthrough Therapy by the US Food and Drug Administration.

He is currently in phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of PTSD and Mehta said the drug should be more widely available for medical research.

"There is access to treatment that is so promising that it seems unethical to not give people access," he said. declared. "There is a renewed interest in MDMA, how it works and how it affects the brain."