Ecstasy puts holes in your brain.
No study has found holes. Heavy use is linked to lower serotonin transporter binding, and the most famous damage paper was retracted because its monkeys got methamphetamine.
First documented: , Science: Ricaurte et al., later retracted
Origin, evidence and 4 references
Origin
The claim had a scientific peak on 27 September 2002, when Science published a paper by George Ricaurte's group at Johns Hopkins. It reported that "Nonhuman primates exposed to several sequential doses of MDMA" developed severe damage to dopamine neurons, and warned that "recreational MDMA users may unwittingly be putting themselves at risk" of later brain disorders.[1]
The evidence
In September 2003 the authors retracted the paper. The monkeys had not received MDMA. Nature reported that the group had "accidentally injected monkeys with methamphetamine" from mislabelled vials.[2] PubMed now lists the paper as retracted.[1]
What human imaging does show is narrower than holes. A 2010 PET study of 49 regular ecstasy users found serotonin transporter binding "significantly decreased throughout all cerebral cortices", tied to how much they had used. The same study's MRI scans "revealed no overall regional volume differences between groups".[3] Lower transporter binding is a real finding worth taking seriously. It is a change in a marker, not missing brain tissue.
The propaganda
The retraction travelled less far than the paper. A 2021 study of the 50 largest American newspapers found that of the 26 that covered the 2002 paper, "only 14 (54%) covered its retraction".[4]
References
- Severe dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates after a common recreational dose regimen of MDMA ("ecstasy") [RETRACTED]. Science 297:2260 (2002), via PubMed
- Agony for researchers as mix-up forces retraction of ecstasy study. Nature 425:109 (2003), Wayback capture
- Decreased cerebral cortical serotonin transporter binding in ecstasy users: a positron emission tomography/[11C]DASB and structural brain imaging study. Brain 133:1779 (2010), via PubMed
- Dissemination of erroneous research findings and subsequent retraction in high-circulation newspapers: a case study of alleged MDMA-induced dopaminergic neurotoxicity in primates. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 53:104 (2021), via PubMed