The widely used club drug ecstasy appears to increase the risk of sleep apnea, say U.S. researchers.
“People who use ecstasy need to know that this drug damages the brain and can cause immediat
e and dangerous problems such as sleep apnea,” study author Dr. Una McCann, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a news release.
McCann and colleagues conducted sleep tests on 71 people who’d used ecstasy (MDMA) and 62 people who’d never used the illegal drug. Ecstasy users had a more than eight-fold increased risk of sleep apnea compared to non-users. Mild sleep apnea rates were similar in both groups (21% of ecstasy users and 27% of non-users), but only ecstasy users had moderate (13%) or severe (1%) sleep apnea.
The longer a person used ecstasy, the more sleep apnea episodes they experienced, said the researchers. They also found that ecstasy use was a greater risk factor for sleep apnea than obesity.
The study is published in the Dec. 2 online issue of the journal Neurology.
Source: http://www.medicinenet.com
This is really fascinating. I always knew that this drug was just bad news - very creepy stuff, but still informative - thanks