Is Ecstasy an “Empathogen”? Effects of +/- 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine on Prosocial Feelings and Identification of Emotional States in Others

In the paper

“whereas MDMA (1.5mg/kg) significantly increased loving feelings and friendliness compared to placebo, these ratings were not significantly different from ratings on methamphetamine.”

In the paper

“MDMA’s apparent empathogenic effects are also central to the rationale for the use of the drug as a psychotherapeutic adjunct [1, 5–6].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [1] Parrott, 2007, The psychotherapeutic potential of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine): An evidence-based review, Psychopharmacology source
• Not checked yetcites [5] Holland, 2001
• Not checked yetcites [6] Johansen, 2009, How could ecstasy help anxiety disorders?, J Psychopharmacol source

In the paper

“Truncation of two outlying data points (both in DANVA scores) did not alter results and original data were retained.”

In the paper

“Compliance was verified with urine (QuickTox Drug Screen Dipcard, Branan Medical Corporation, Irvine, CA), saliva (Oratect III, Branan Medical Corporation) and breathalyzer (Alco-sensor III, Intoximeters, St. Louis, MO) screens.”

In the paper

“Drug doses were selected based on previous research; MDMA doses in this low-to-moderate range have been safely administered to humans previously, and produce modest to robust alterations in mood state [24].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [24] Dumont, 2006, A review of acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetmine in healthy volunteers, J Psychopharmacol source

In the paper

“MDMA (±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, ‘ecstasy’) is reported to have unusual, so-called ‘empathogenic’ effects, such as increased empathy and prosocial feelings [e.g. see 1].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [1] Parrott, 2007, The psychotherapeutic potential of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine): An evidence-based review, Psychopharmacology source

In the paper

“Participants started cognitive tasks (e.g. emotional recognition) 65 minutes after capsule administration, to coincide with peak drug effect onset [26].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [26] Cami, 2000, Human pharmacology of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”): Psychomotor performance and subjective effects, J Clin Psychopharmacol source

In the paper

“For the current study, we selected a methamphetamine dose (20mg) that is safe, and induces robust stimulant and euphoric effects, in amphetamine-naive volunteers [27].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] Wachtel, 2002, The effects of acute haloperidol or risperidone on subjective responses to methamphetamine in healthy volunteers, Drug Alcohol Depend source

In the paper

“These studies indicate that MDMA increases feelings related to empathy and sociability, including self-rated friendliness [7–8], extroversion [9–10], closeness to others [11], sociability [7, 12], talkativeness [7–8], amicability, and gregariousness [13], although some of these effects are inconsistent [14–16].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [7] Tancer, 2003, Reinforcing, subjective, and physiological effects of MDMA in humans: A comparison with d-amphetamine and mCPP, Drug Alcohol Depend source
• Not checked yetcites [8] Tancer, 2007, The effects of fluoxetine on the subjective and physiological effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans, Psychopharmacology source
• Not checked yetcites [9] Vollenweider, 1999, Opposite effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on sensorimotor gating in rats versus healthy humans, Psychopharmacology source
• Not checked yetcites [10] Liechti, 2000, Psychological and physiological effects of MDMA (“ecstasy”) after pretreatment with the 5-HT-sub-2 antagonist ketanserin in healthy humans, Neuropsychopharmacology source
• Not checked yetcites [14] Liechti, 2000, Acute psychological effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “ecstasy”) are attenuated by the serotonin uptake inhibitor citalopram, Neuropsychopharmacology source
• Not checked yetcites [15] Johanson, 2006, Discriminative stimulus effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans trained to discriminate among d-amphetamine, meta-chlorophenylpiperazine and placebo, Drug Alcohol Depend source
• Not checked yetcites [16] Harris, 2002, Subjective and hormonal effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans, Psychopharmacology source

In the paper

“Session order did not have a significant effect in any of the analyses, and was therefore not retained in the models.”

In the paper

“Using fMRI, we recently reported effects of MDMA on neural processing of social material [12], but in that study the drug did not alter the behavioral response to the stimuli (i.e. accuracy of identification of emotions from pictures of facial effect).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [12] Bedi, 2009, Effects of MDMA on sociability and neural response to social threat and social reward, Psychopharmacology source

In the paper

“Data for four outcome measures were non-normal (VAS Loving, VAS Lonely, POMS Friendly, and DANVA scores). In these cases, we conducted non-parametric analysis (Friedman’s ANOVA followed by Wilcoxon signed rank tests). In all cases except VAS Lonely, the non-parametric approach yielded the same results; therefore parametric statistics are reported. For VAS Lonely, non-parametric statistics yielded”

In the paper

“The Eyes test is sensitive to oxytocin administration [33].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Domes, 2007, Oxytocin improves “mind-reading” in humans, Biol Psychiatry source

In the paper

“Such effects are cited as a motivation to use ecstasy recreationally [2–3] and may contribute to its reinforcing capacity [4].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [2] Thompson, 2007, A role for oxytocin and 5-HT(1A) receptors in the prosocial effects of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”), Neuroscience source
• Not checked yetcites [3] Sumnall, 2006, The varieties of ecstasy experience: An exploration of the subjective experiences of ecstasy, J Psychopharmacol source
• Not checked yetcites [4] McGregor, 2008, From ultrasocial to antisocial: A role for oxytocin in the acute reinforcing effects and long-term adverse consequences of drug use?, Br J Pharmacol source

In the paper

“Identification of others’ emotions based on facial, vocal or postural cues is a critical social cognitive capacity and an important ‘first step’ in empathy [17]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [17] Clark, 2008, Autism and the extraction of emotion from briefly presented facial expressions: Stumbling at the first step of empathy, Emotion source

In the paper

“A 4-session, within-participants, double-blind design was employed.”

• Also stated in: § Experimental Protocol · plain

  “capsules were administered in randomized order.”

In the paper

“The emotional expressions shown were not subtle [18], they were presented for a long period (4 seconds) [17], and we selected a relatively narrow range of basic emotions (e.g. fear, anger and happiness [19]), excluding more complex, culturally-determined affective states, such as shame and jealousy [20].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18] Philippot, 2003, Nonverbal deficits and interpersonal regulation in alcoholics
• Not checked yetcites [17] Clark, 2008, Autism and the extraction of emotion from briefly presented facial expressions: Stumbling at the first step of empathy, Emotion source
• Not checked yetcites [19] Ekman, 2003

In the paper

“reductions in the intensity of fear perception, including but not limited to those reported here, might facilitate engagement with traumatic material during therapy [49].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [49] Mithoefer, 2010, The safety and efficacy of ± 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: The first randomized, controlled pilot study [published online ahead of print July 19], J Psychopharmacol

In the paper

“We found that MDMA (1.5mg/kg only) altered a behavioral indicator of social cognition. Specifically, it robustly reduced recognition of fearful faces, without changing recognition of other emotions from facial or vocal cues.”

In the paper

“For instance, compromised social cognition may increase social risk-taking while under the influence of the drug.”

In the paper

“The effect of MDMA on social cognition was limited to identification of emotions from facial expressions, with no apparent effect on recognition of affective cues from the eye region or from voices.”

In the paper

“A third possible limitation was that we adjusted the dose to the body weight for MDMA but not for methamphetamine. This is unlikely to be a major factor because participants were within a narrow weight range (BMI 18.5 – 30), and post-hoc analysis indicated that only one measure of methamphetamine’s effects (playfulness) correlated with body weight (r = − 0.45, p = 0.04).”

In the paper

“Second, we are not aware of tasks that include both social and non-social stimuli, making it difficult to determine the specificity of these findings to social stimuli.”

In the paper

“we found that MDMA (1.5mg/kg) increased the number of non-neutral faces erroneously identified as neutral, apparently reducing the capacity to detect subtle emotional signals.”

In the paper

“For example, the static photos of facial affect we employed may be less ecologically valid than dynamic stimuli [e.g. see 41].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [41] Zaki, 2008, It takes two: The interpersonal nature of empathic accuracy, Psychol Sci source