文摘

Objectives: As a part of an epidemiological Study we tried to establish a risk profile for psychiatric disorders in so called recreational MDMA-users to be able to predict the probability of later psychiatric disorder in this group.

Methods: We examined 120 MDMA-users (mean age 17.6 y) with a semi-structured interview that had been tested in former studies. Apart from basic data it focuses on the personal ways of abuse and paranormal experiences during drug-intake and later on.

Results: 25 % (n = 30) of the adolescents reported hallucinations, anxiety and depression during and after MDMA-intake and in the time afterwards. The severity and duration of the symptoms was correlated both with amount and duration of drug-intake and to its social context. All 6 patients with psychosis-like symptoms took MDMA alone, longer than six months and as a sort of self-medication against depression.

Conclusions: These first qualitative data on the risk of psychiatric symptoms in recreational MDMA-users have to be reconfirmed by larger studies, although there still are major methodological and practical problems to be solved. But combined with the knowledge about clinical cases with MDMA-related disorders there seems to be some evidence that there is a certain subgroup of MDMA-users that are at a risk to develop severe psychiatric disorders.

Further epidemiological and clinical studies on this issue have to be done in order to create psychiatric and public health concepts to cope with this growing problem.