Neuropsychiatric consequences (atypical psychosis and complex-partial seizures) of ecstasy use: possible evidence for toxicity-vulnerability predictors and implications for preventative and clinical care.
Two case reports of ecstasy abuse and its serious neuropsychiatric complications are presented. The first patient developed a florid paranoid psychosis resembling schizophrenia after repeated long-term recreational ecstasy abuse, and significant alterations with intermittent paroxysmal discharges were found in his electroencephalogram. The second patient showed an atypical paranoid psychosis with Fregoli syndrome and a series of complex-partial epileptic seizures with secondary generalization after a first single ecstasy dose. Both subjects presented considerable vulnerability; the first a minimal brain dysfunction after perinatal asphyxia and a persisting attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the second a long-lasting opioid addiction. In vulnerable individuals, dose-independent ecstasy abuse can lead to unpredictable and potentially dangerous neuropsychiatric sequelae which require proper initial assessment and adequate treatment.
D000328:Adult; D019969:Amphetamine-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000139:chemically induced; D005260:Female; D006213:Hallucinogens / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000523:psychology; D013577:Syndrome
D006213:Hallucinogens; D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine