Hi, and welcome to my fourth video in this series. Today, we’re going to be looking

at the relationship between ecstasy and serotonin in the brain.

This diagram shows two neurones. This is your pre-synaptic neurone and this one is your

post-synaptic neurone; again, pre meaning before, and post meaning after.

These are neurones in the brain and these are the neurones that control things like your mood and happiness.

The drug that we’re looking at today is ecstasy otherwise known as sometimes MDMA.

What that causes is that causes a release a chemical called serotonin.

Serotonin is represented on the diagrams by these little yellow circles and they’re the neurotransmitter

between the nerve cells in the brain that control things like mood and happiness.

Now, what usually happens is that the serotonin is usually recycled and then put back into

the pre-synaptic neuron. So, this diagram here shows essentially how its reset. So,

now, when another impulse comes in, it’s then free to release more serotonin into the

synapse. But what happens when you take ecstasy is the serotonin is not taken back up into

the pre-synaptic neurone like it is here. Essentially, what happens is this, the serotonin,

is blocked from reentering here and so you have an increased level of serotonin in the

synapse. So, these neurones consistently fire, hence,

the feelings of happiness and pleasure that you get when the drug is taken. Then, not all research down in this area is

absolutely conclusive, but for most of the evidence that we have currently, there seems

to be a link between taking MDMA and ecstasy and some forms of depression. Like I said,

this isn’t a guarantee; taking ecstasy and MDMA doesn’t guarantee depression but it

increases your risk. A bit like if you’re drinking too much, the increase risk of liver

disease is much higher than if you did not. In summary, the neuro transmitter and the

brain that controls mood and happiness is serotonin and essentially taking a drug like

ecstasy or MDMA increases the level of serotonin in the brain. It does this because it stops

it being reabsorbed back into the presynaptic neurone. This causes the neurones in the brain

that control happiness and mood to fire more regularly and this increases the feelings

of pleasure and elation. It has been shown, however, that prolonged use of ecstasy can

lead to depression.