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The effects of MDMA on socio-emotional processing: Does MDMA differ from other stimulants?

This review (2016) compares MDMA with other stimulant drugs with regard to their social effects. The authors conclude that MDMA produces distinct effects in a variety of domains.

Authors

  • Harriet de Wit
  • Anya Bershad
  • Matthew Baggot

Published

Journal of Psychopharmacology
meta Study

Abstract

±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a popular recreational drug that enhances sociability and feelings of closeness with others. These “prosocial” effects appear to motivate the recreational use of MDMA and may also form the basis of its potential as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, the extent to which MDMA differs from prototypic stimulant drugs, such as dextroamphetamine, methamphetamine, and methylphenidate, in either its behavioral effects or mechanisms of action, is not fully known. The purpose of this review is to evaluate human laboratory findings of the social effects of MDMA compared to other stimulants, ranging from simple subjective ratings of sociability to more complex elements of social processing and behavior. We also review the neurochemical mechanisms by which these drugs may impact sociability. Together, the findings reviewed here lay the groundwork for better understanding the socially enhancing effects of MDMA that distinguish it from other stimulant drugs, especially as these effects relate to the reinforcing and potentially therapeutic effects of the drug.

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Research Summary of 'The effects of MDMA on socio-emotional processing: Does MDMA differ from other stimulants?'

Introduction

Psychostimulant drugs generally produce euphoria, stimulation and increased sociability, but ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been emphasised as having unusually prosocial or ‘‘empathogenic’’ effects. Historical reports and early psychotherapeutic use in the 1970s led researchers to propose that MDMA might form a distinct pharmacological class, and later human laboratory studies since the 1990s have begun to characterise its psychosocial effects relative to other stimulants. Bershad and colleagues set out to review human laboratory findings comparing MDMA with prototypic stimulant drugs (for example d-amphetamine, methamphetamine and methylphenidate) across a range of social domains. The review focuses on placebo-controlled, double-blind studies of healthy volunteers and considers self-report measures, behavioural and physiological tasks, social interaction paradigms, and neurochemical mechanisms, with the aim of identifying which social effects—if any—are distinctive to MDMA and how pharmacology might explain them.

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Study Details

References (25)

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