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Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations

MDMA is a stimulant-like drug with distinctive empathogenic effects. Its pro-social effects, such as feelings of connectedness, may contribute to both its popularity as a recreational drug and its apparent value as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, little is known about the behavioral processes...

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Autores principales: Molla, Hanna, Lee, Royce, Lyubomirsky, Sonja, de Wit, Harriet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516994/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37740024
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43156-0
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author Molla, Hanna
Lee, Royce
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
de Wit, Harriet
author_facet Molla, Hanna
Lee, Royce
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
de Wit, Harriet
author_sort Molla, Hanna
collection PubMed
description MDMA is a stimulant-like drug with distinctive empathogenic effects. Its pro-social effects, such as feelings of connectedness, may contribute to both its popularity as a recreational drug and its apparent value as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, little is known about the behavioral processes by which MDMA affects social interactions. This investigation examined the effects of MDMA (100 mg versus placebo; N = 18) on feelings of connectedness with an unfamiliar partner during a semi-structured casual conversation. A separate study examined the effects of a prototypic stimulant methamphetamine (MA; 20 mg versus placebo; N = 19) to determine the pharmacological specificity of effects. Oxytocin levels were obtained in both studies. Compared to placebo, both MDMA and MA increased feelings of connection with the conversation partners. Both MDMA and MA increased oxytocin levels, but oxytocin levels were correlated with feeling closer to the partner only after MDMA. These findings demonstrate an important new dimension of the pro-social effects of MDMA, its ability to increase feelings of connectedness during casual conversations between two individuals. Surprisingly, MA had a similar effect. The findings extend our knowledge of the social effects of these drugs, and illustrate a sensitive method for assessing pro-social effects during in-person dyadic encounters.
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spelling pubmed-105169942023-09-24 Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations Molla, Hanna Lee, Royce Lyubomirsky, Sonja de Wit, Harriet Sci Rep Article MDMA is a stimulant-like drug with distinctive empathogenic effects. Its pro-social effects, such as feelings of connectedness, may contribute to both its popularity as a recreational drug and its apparent value as an adjunct to psychotherapy. However, little is known about the behavioral processes by which MDMA affects social interactions. This investigation examined the effects of MDMA (100 mg versus placebo; N = 18) on feelings of connectedness with an unfamiliar partner during a semi-structured casual conversation. A separate study examined the effects of a prototypic stimulant methamphetamine (MA; 20 mg versus placebo; N = 19) to determine the pharmacological specificity of effects. Oxytocin levels were obtained in both studies. Compared to placebo, both MDMA and MA increased feelings of connection with the conversation partners. Both MDMA and MA increased oxytocin levels, but oxytocin levels were correlated with feeling closer to the partner only after MDMA. These findings demonstrate an important new dimension of the pro-social effects of MDMA, its ability to increase feelings of connectedness during casual conversations between two individuals. Surprisingly, MA had a similar effect. The findings extend our knowledge of the social effects of these drugs, and illustrate a sensitive method for assessing pro-social effects during in-person dyadic encounters. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10516994/ /pubmed/37740024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43156-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Molla, Hanna
Lee, Royce
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
de Wit, Harriet
Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title_full Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title_fullStr Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title_full_unstemmed Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title_short Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
title_sort drug-induced social connection: both mdma and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10516994/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37740024
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43156-0
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