According to a new study published in the Australian Medical Journal, 20 percent of users of the drugs ecstasy, ice and speed in the ER developed signs of brain damage. Two thirds had concentration and mood problems, and half said they had general health problems.
For the study the researchers at Royal Perth Hospital scanned the brains of 30 patients who had been admitted to emergency for problems related to amphetamine use and interviewed them for the study. The average age of the users when they started taking drugs was 18, and out of the 30 studied, 23 were classified as serious drug users, with the remainder deemed recreational users. 14 patients admitted to suffering memory problems when not high on drugs. Six patients showed signs of brain damage, often an “unidentified bright object” on their scan which indicated a point of damage usually in their brain's frontal lobe or the front part of the brain. Young drug users thus developed brain damage usually seen only in the elderly.
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Daniel Fatovich, from the hospital's Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine said, “Abnormalities on brain MRI scans were identified in six patients, most commonly an unidentified bright object.” This type of brain lesion increases the risk of stroke, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly. Dr. Fatovich said, “Obviously, we don't know for sure if that happens in young people because this is an evolving problem . . . but it does seem to fit with the general notion that using amphetamines not only ages you on the outside but it probably ages you on the inside as well… The main message is that there are serious long-term effects from using these drugs, particularly on the brain and most users will acknowledge that it is affecting their brain.”
Professor Fatovich said that after his team proves that long-term drug users had structural brain abnormalities, he wanted to see whether they had functional brain abnormalities as well.
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