Note: This post is 7 years old, so it's both out of date and written by someone less skilled than 2025!Elizabeth. I especially wish I'd quantified the risks more.

Introduction

MDMA (popularly known as Ecstasy) is a chemical with powerful neurological effects. Some of these are positive- the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has shown very promising preliminary results using MDMA-assisted therapy to cure treatment-resistant PTSD. It is also, according to reports, quite fun. But there is also concern that MDMA can cause serious brain damage. I set out to find if that was true, in the hope that it wasn’t, because it sounds awesome.

Unfortunately the evidence is very strongly on the side of “dangerous”. Retrospective studies of long term users show cognitive deficits not found in other drug users, while animal studies show brain damage and inconsistent cognitive deficits. The one bright spot is [...]

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Outline:

(00:23) Introduction

(01:39) Background

(02:38) The Damage

(02:41) Retrospective Studies

(03:40) Controlled Animal Experiments

(04:27) Controlled Human Experiments

(05:18) Mitigations

(06:14) Conclusion

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First published:
June 29th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CJC6N4xu2T6Km7w54/literature-review-risks-of-mdma

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Literature Review: Risks of MDMA” by Elizabeth