Unbelievable Case of Ecstasy Damage

I've just been reading a report on a case study involving MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine or Ecstasy) use in a man only known as "Mr. A" from the U.K.

Now, the report isn't that new - it's from 2006 - but it still contains some extremely frightening information on the drug, Ecstasy, and its possible long-term effects.

The case study involves a man in England who quit using the drug after several years of steady use. He went to professionals at St. George's Medical School in Tooting, London England UK for help. He had quit using the drug several months earlier but still felt like he was under the influence of the drug when he was desperate to get help for his problem.

At the time of publication of this report, Mr. A. had not taken MDMA/Ecstasy for 7 years but was still suffering with severe mental health and physical health side-effects of the drug. Some of the side-effects listed were: paranoia, depression, hallucinations and memory problems. As far as physical effects, Mr. A. still suffered with severe and painful muscle rigidity at his neck and jaw - sometimes so pronounced that opening his mouth was impossible.

What is worse is that medical professionals (in 2006, anyway) believed there was a high possibility that these effects would be permanent.

Mr. A's MDMA drug use:

Started around age 21, whereby he would take approximately 5 doses per weekend, on average. He continued this way for about 2 years then started to increase the amount and frequency of drug use until he was ingesting approximately 3 and a half pills per day for a while. He increased this dosage further until he was, at a peak time of addiction, taking a whopping 25 pills per day! He took this dosage, daily, for about FOUR YEARS!

Professionals have calculated the number of pills Mr. A. probably took overall and come up with an astounding sum of 40,000 pills!

You can read the rest of the article yourself from the link below:

The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years This article is from guardian . co . uk website.

Mr. A. was also a heavy cannabis user. A few of his symptoms became a little less serious when he acted upon doctors' suggestions to stop using cannabis - but overall, his memory and concentration difficulties persisted. Some of the hallucinations and paranoia were stopped or lessened by his avoidance of cannabis.

He started treatment with specialists in brain injuries and, for a while, went on anti-psychotic medication but unfortunately, Mr. A. discharged himself prematurely from treatment (according to a Dr Kouimtsidis). Mr. A. went back to cannabis use and the doctors and specialists 'lost him.'

Here's a statement (remember, this was published in 2006):

"Unfortunately, he discharged himself before we were able to complete the assessment," says Dr Kouimtsidis. "We continued to support him. But he started to use cannabis again and he dropped out. We tried to re-engage him but we lost him about a year ago."

The Guardian site where this article is published attempted to find Mr. A., as well, in order to re-connect him with treatment, but The Guardian couldn't find the man.

This article shocked me in its entirety because I've known people to have overdosed and ended up in the hospital for taking just less than 25 tablets of ecstacy! This article tells of a man who, quite regularly, dosed himself up on 25 pills on a daily basis.

Obviously, not without extremely harmful - probably life-long - damage...