MDMA, the main ingredient of Ecstasy, makes you nicer, but not naive, according to a study

PARIS – MDMA, the main ingredient of Ecstasy, encourages more humans to cooperate, but only with people of confidence, said researchers Monday during the first study on the impact of this drug on our desire to & # 39; 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.

The researchers at King's College London studied 20 healthy adult men, who were given a typical dose of MDMA or a placebo tablet for recreational purposes, and then asked to perform a series of tasks while images of their brain activity was taken with an MRI scanner.

The prisoner's dilemma is one of the psychological exercises that were given to him – an example of the theory of 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 could make you think that others are more trustworthy. And we were wrong, "said Mitul Mehta, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience of the King.

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

"It's not that MDMA gives you pink tinted glasses and that you behave differently, so it keeps your glasses clear and you always think that an untrustworthy person is untrustworthy."

The team found that MDMA increased activity in the upper temporal cortex and the midcorrelated 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 at the level of the right anterior insula – an important part of the brain in the assessment of risk and uncertainty – when MDMA participants were treating the behavior of reputable 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 has no overall effect on brain behavior, it actually has a rather specific effect and it's really helpful."

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. We can now ask the question of how your social behavior is problematic – is it your behavior or the way you evaluate others? Said Mehta.

Although legally classified in Britain as a Schedule 1 drug – that is, it is deemed to have no medical use – MDMA has been referred to as "disruption therapy" by the US Food and Drug Administration.

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

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