Richard Allen

Publication Detail

The publication detail shows the title, authors (with indicators showing other profiled authors), information on the publishing organization, abstract and a link to the article in PubMed. This abstract is what is used to create the fingerprint of the publication. If any grants are referenced by the publication, they will be listed here as well.

Persistent effects of (+/- )3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") on human sleep.

R P Allen; U D McCann; G A Ricaurte (Profiled Authors: Richard Allen; George Ricaurte; Una Mccann)

Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Francis Scott Key Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
Sleep 1993;16(6):560-4.

(+/- )3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a recreational drug of abuse which damages serotonin neurons in animals. It is not known whether MDMA is also neurotoxic in humans, and if so, whether there are functional consequences. Given the putative role of serotonin in sleep, it was hypothesized that one manifestation of serotonin neurotoxicity in humans might be disturbances of sleep. To determine whether MDMA use has effects on sleep, all-night polysomnograms of 23 MDMA users were compared to those of 22 age- and sex-matched controls. On average, MDMA users had 19 minutes less total sleep and 23.2 minutes less non-REM (NREM) sleep than controls. These statistically significant differences in NREM sleep were due primarily to an average of 37 minutes less stage 2 sleep, with no significant differences noted in stages 1, 3 or 4. Although it is not known whether the alterations in sleep observed in MDMA users are due to serotonin neurotoxicity, the present findings suggest that MDMA use can lead to persistent changes in CNS structures involved in human sleep generation.

Scientific Context

This section shows information related to the publication - computed using the fingerprint of the publication - including related publications, related experts and related grants with fingerprints representing significant amounts of overlap between their fingerprint and this publication. The red dots indicate whether those experts or terms appear within the publication, thereby showing potential and actual connections.