These illegal drugs may or may not be too dangerous to use regularly to treat depression, but it's worth noting the fact that it's clearly not "impossible" to make a true "happy pill"
So while it is possible serotonin is not the happy chemical, it either does play a role (possibly or even likely if you ask me in combination with other chemicals) or else all other research so far has been very much wrong.
> MDMA acts primarily as a presynaptic releasing agent of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, which arises from its activity at trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2).
It goes on to state that MDMA acts as an inhibitor of VMAT2, which correlates to an increase of the neurotransmitters in the space near that receptor's neuron.
I think this means that it does operate on the brain by encouraging the release of more serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine.
The best I can describe it is that a high enough dose feels like putting your brain into debugging mode and then cycling through hundreds of circuits simultaneously. It's not so much "I am experiencing happy now" as "I am experiencing happy, sad, confused, interested, pulsating colors, fractals, childlike wonder, fear, and every other cognitive state simultaneously or in rapid succession."
Some people get very spiritual about it, but I think you kind of have to be a spiritually inclined person anyway to have that specific experience. I always saw it more of giving the hardware a good jolt and seeing what falls out. It's pretty common to go from laughing uncontrollably, to inconsolable sadness, and back again, fairly quickly. This is where a lot of the fear about "bad trips" comes from, but I've found you can manage that with practice and having experienced people tripping with you or babysitting.
I do think there are therapeutic benefits though. Even if there are difficult periods, I find I always felt happier, more ok with the world and open to new experiences and attitudes for up to weeks after words. The article briefly mentions how there's a hypothesis that depression is possibly an effect of individuals who "over learn" negative experiences and become fixated on negative outcomes, and this makes a lot of sense to me. Aside from a sort of "purging" feeling just from such intense bursts of emotions, I could see how it helped to kind of kick me out of the traps of negative and habitual thinking and emotions. Maybe it helped my neurons "relearn" there are other experiences, emotions, and modes of thinking that I can access too?
This is all anecdotal evidence though, gathered while under severe impairment, so take it with that caveat. I would bet that aside from the legal issues, the hardest part of investigating things like psychedelics in a scientific way is that every experience is inherently subjective and personal. Trying to describe and talk about them gets very squishy very quickly.
There have been many bullshit studies with predetermined agendas and bad methodologies which have claimed that MDMA is neurotoxic. Whenever more responsible, un-biased studies are done, they usually show it is actually less "toxic" than alcohol.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband...
That's not saying much. A jab in the eye with a sharp stick is less toxic than alcohol, but it's not a good idea.
"a glass or two of wine with your meal" "every day" is unequivocally harmful. It's a dangerous, pernicious myth (mostly promoted by alcohol companies) that daily alcohol is some how healthy.
A small number of French people drink very heavily. A bit less than 20% of the French population drinks wine daily. This contributes to the 49,000 or so who die of alcohol related disease each year.
Well, I know how much people back in my village drink, and I probably underestimate it. As for effects, they merely live to 80-90 and still manage to work on the fields and such.
>"a glass or two of wine with your meal" "every day" is unequivocally harmful. It's a dangerous, pernicious myth (mostly promoted by alcohol companies) that daily alcohol is some how healthy.
Actually daily alcohol has been the norm for very long living populations, including this famed one, which I've met and seen personally:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1037448...
http://processedfreeamerica.org/resources/health-news/817-th...
Where: "the Icarian diet includes a little wine at every meal, even breakfast? They usually drink between two and four glasses of wine per day."
And counter to your claims, the science seems to support it, e.g:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11066516/Glass-of-win...
http://www.endocrineweb.com/news/diabetes/17936-red-wine-din...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-heart-wine-idUSKCN0...
>A small number of French people drink very heavily. A bit less than 20% of the French population drinks wine daily. This contributes to the 49,000 or so who die of alcohol related disease each year.
While that's true, that has to do more with the economy and modern trends (sodas etc). Historically it has been a much different picture:
"France's average wine consumption fall from 160 litres per adult, per year in 1965 to 57 litres in 2010, roughly the equivalent of a drop from three glasses to one glass per person, per day"
A lot of the fear about alcohol in the US comes from the fact that people are not properly taught to handle it (as something you drink with company, accompanying a meal, enjoying slowly etc), and use it in moderation from a young age (heck, the drinking age is 21 years olds), and instead use it in excess as some kind of recreation/pain killer/etc combo. Very few people at 19-21 in Europe (and especially regions like Spain, France, Italy, etc) would ever do the kind of BS stunts an American college student would do with beer and alcohol. (Though protestant and Northern countries tend to fare worse in this cultural aspect).
To quote:
"Comparing patterns of alcohol consumption between the United States and the majority of European countries, for example, reveals an interesting trend. In the U.S., the nation with one of the highest binge drinking rates worldwide, people tend to abuse alcohol. In Europe, by contrast, more people enjoy drinking alcohol without binge drinking because leisurely drinking is an important part of social interaction."
http://mic.com/articles/57211/can-you-guess-where-in-the-wor...
You claim the science supports it, but you link to the Telegraph and Reuters?
And if we're to nitpick, I'll have to say that at least I linked to "Telegraph and Reuters" whereas you didn't link to any source at all for your statements.
In the very short-term it is quite neurotoxic, and consuming too much can cause immediate problems. It looks like short-term problems can be minimised by taking a few weeks in between uses, and according to at least one study it looks like all damage can be undone by just a few months of abstience.
However there's really not enough data about lasting affects, if there are any, or about how frequency of use could impact your brain's outcome, or.... etc.
Anecdotally I've heard many stories of people using MDMA too often and "losing the magic", that it just stops giving them the effects they used to enjoy.
One other thing to note, you wrote "if you keep taking it, it will stop working altogether eventually, regardless of an increased dose" I'm no expert, and could well be corrected on this, but I suspect that is much more the case with the positive effects than with the downsides. For example MDMA is a drug known to have a "sweet spot" for most people, unlike many drugs (from booze to weed to cocaine) where different people build up different tolerances/preferences and therefore have a large range of doses, MDMA is generally thought to have quite a small range of good doses, after which increases will cause more/worse side affects without adding anything positive to the experience.
Edit: https://dancesafe.org/drug-information/is-mdma-neurotoxic/ is good for brief further reading (good sources cited at the end to follow), as well as https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma_neurotoxicity1.sh...
Here is a good overview of its different neurotoxicity factors from a well-regarded neuroscience researcher:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DrugNerds/comments/13lp0b/mdma_neur...
https://www.reddit.com/r/DrugNerds/comments/15m9sf/mdma_supp...
1. MDMA metabolizes into other chemicals which are prone to creating many reactive oxygen species, causing oxidative stress in different parts of the brain. This can be mitigated, partially, with anti-oxidant supplements.
2. MDMA directly harms and destroys receptors via serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate system via excitotoxicity. Infrequent use minimizes this. NMDA antagonists could also possibly help reduce some of the effects.
3. MDMA harms all parts of the brain by overheating it. Stay hydrated and prevent yourself from doing much physical activity in a hot area.
So, MDMA can be taken safely, but it is naturally neurotoxic, and must be treated with much respect and caution.
Other good advice for what supplements to take can be found at http://rollsafe.org