A study titled, Debunking the myth of 'Blue Mondays': No evidence of affect drop after taking clinical MDMA, has been released suggesting that the environment and illicit nature of taking MDMA/Ecstasy is what results in bad come-downs, not the drug itself.
The study suggests that the comedowns are a result of context and environments that the drug is used recreationally in.
It found that when MDMA is taken in a clinically controlled environment, no come downs were felt. The test participants reported that their moods were instead elevated and that there were limited negative side effects within that context.
The chemical compound of MDMA often leads to users feeling down, depressed and serotonin depleted, due to the compounds within the drug and how it effects the brain.
The trial tracked the moods and reactions of 14 people who were enlisted into an MDMA-assisted psychotherapy course to treat issues with alcohol.
There was no mental drop off across the 14 participants, with many of the users claiming their mood elevated and they had no inclination to reuse MDMA recreationally.
The abstract states, "aimed to evaluate the evidence basis for the negative side effects associated with MDMA as well as inform our understanding of the drug's post-acute effects in a clinical context with an open-label study."
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Their results, "support the overall safety and tolerability of clinically administered MDMA and, importantly, suggest that the 'come downs' previously associated with the substance may be explained by confounds in research relating to the illicit sourcing of the drug and specific environmental setting for recreational consumption."
VICE chat to the co-author of the study who clarified the results.
"The differences between clinical MDMA and recreational ecstasy are massive. An ecstasy tablet or a bag of crystal MDMA may contain anywhere between 0mg and 350mg of MDMA, plus any number of adulterants. In contrast, when we give MDMA clinically we use clinical-grade MDMA, which is 99.98% pure.
"People usually take recreational ecstasy at night. They stay up all night, missing out on sleep. This hugely contributes to feeling unwell and hungover the next day. The low mood effects persist for several days after missing a night’s sleep, which also causes this 'Blue Monday' effect a few days later.
"In contrast, we administer clinical MDMA at 9:AM, and the effects have worn off by the evening, at which point the patients feel back to baseline and naturally tired. They then get a good night's sleep and do not have any immediate hangover effects in the following week."
