Ecstasy Deaths Linked to Increased Body Temperatures

The club drug Ecstasy can increase body temperature so drastically it can cause severe brain damage and death, according to research by a postgraduate pharmacology student at the University of Adelaide in Australia. The danger for Ecstasy users comes when they fail to notice that their body is abnormally hot.

Because the drug is often used by those going to nightclubs and "rave parties," they can attribute the increase in their body temperature to their surroundings without realizing that it is the effects of Ecstasy, according to Emily Jaehne.

"When ecstasy users are taking the drug in nightclubs they tend to blame the surroundings for their elevated body temperature and just ignore the warning signs. That can be fatal," Jaehne said in a Newswise report.

"The fact that these drugs are often taken in warm nightclubs and at rave parties increases the risk of long-term changes in brain function, or even death," she said.

Jaehne will present her findings at an international drug conference in Puerto Rico in June 2008.

Source: Ecstasy Deaths Linked to Raised Body Temperature.

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