Hjerneceller tager skade af ecstasy, også celler, som er med til at styre vores søvn. Ny forskning tyder på, at ecstasy kan give pauser i vejrtrækningen under søvn, den såkaldte søvn-apnø, som ellers ses mest hos ældre og overvægtige.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2009) — Repeated use of the drug popularly known as "ecstasy" significantly raises the risk of developing sleep apnea in otherwise healthy young adults with no other known risk factors for the sleep disturbance, a new study by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests. The finding is the latest highlighting the potential dangers of the amphetamine-style chemical, currently used illegally by millions of people in the United States.

Neurology. 2009 Dec 2. [Epub ahead of print]
Sleep apnea in young abstinent recreational MDMA ("ecstasy") consumers.
McCann UD, Sgambati FP, Schwartz AR, Ricaurte GA.

From the Department of Psychiatry (U.D.M., F.P.S.), Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care (A.R.S.), and Department of Neurology (G.A.R.), The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
BACKGROUND: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is a popular recreational drug of abuse and a selective brain serotonin neurotoxin. Functional consequences of MDMA neurotoxicity have defied ready characterization. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common form of sleep-disordered breathing in which brain serotonin dysfunction may play a role. The present study sought to determine whether abstinent recreational MDMA users have an increased prevalence of OSA. METHODS: We studied 71 medically healthy recreational MDMA users and 62 control subjects using all-night sleep polysomnography in a controlled inpatient research setting. Rates of apneas, hypopneas, and apnea hypopnea indices were compared in the 2 groups, controlling for body mass index, age, race, and gender. RESULTS: Recreational MDMA users who had been drug free for at least 2 weeks had significantly increased rates of obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea compared with controls. The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for sleep apnea (mild, moderate, and severe combined) in MDMA users during non-REM sleep was 8.5 (2.4-30.4), which was greater than that associated with obesity [6.9 (1.7-28.2)]. Severity of OSA was significantly related to lifetime MDMA exposure. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that prior recreational methylenedioxymethamphetamine use increases the risk for obstructive sleep apnea and lend support to the notion that brain serotonin neuronal dysfunction plays a role in the pathophysiology of sleep apnea.

PMID: 19955499 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

det lyder som et meget sobert studie, og på baggrund af MDMA's virkning lyder det plausibelt at det kan øge risikoen for søvnapnø.