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Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode

Background: Ecstasy use is generally chosen by adolescents and young adults for its entactogenic properties (the production of feelings of empathy, love, and emotional closeness to others.) Despite this desired and frequently realized outcome, Ecstasy use has often resulted in the genesis of psychot...

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Autores principales: Rugani, Fabio, Bacciardi, Silvia, Rovai, Luca, Pacini, Matteo, Maremmani, Angelo Giovanni Icro, Deltito, Joseph, Dell’Osso, Liliana, Maremmani, Icro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22851941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9072283
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author Rugani, Fabio
Bacciardi, Silvia
Rovai, Luca
Pacini, Matteo
Maremmani, Angelo Giovanni Icro
Deltito, Joseph
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Maremmani, Icro
author_facet Rugani, Fabio
Bacciardi, Silvia
Rovai, Luca
Pacini, Matteo
Maremmani, Angelo Giovanni Icro
Deltito, Joseph
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Maremmani, Icro
author_sort Rugani, Fabio
collection PubMed
description Background: Ecstasy use is generally chosen by adolescents and young adults for its entactogenic properties (the production of feelings of empathy, love, and emotional closeness to others.) Despite this desired and frequently realized outcome, Ecstasy use has often resulted in the genesis of psychotic symptoms and aggressive behaviors, particularly after chronic and/or intensive use. Methods: To explore the negative consequences of Ecstasy use and to examine the aggressive nature oftentimes seen in many Ecstasy users we employed a case-control study model. We compared, by means of validated psychometric tests, the psychopathological symptoms (BPRS), the aggressiveness (OAS) and the social adjustment (DSM-GAF) of psychotic patients with (n = 23) and without (n = 46) recent user of Ecstasy, during their first psychotic episode and hospitalization. All 23 Ecstasy users were Ecstasy users only. Results: Almost all of the psychotic symptoms were of similar severity in both groups. Blunted affect was milder in users than in non-users, whereas hostility and aggressive behavior was significantly more severe in users than in non-users. Conclusions: psychosis with a high level of aggressiveness and violence constitutes an important ‘side-effect’ that surely runs counter to the expected entactogenic action of Ecstasy. At a patient psycho-educational level, this study suggests that the use of Ecstasy may be counterproductive with respect to user expectations.
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spelling pubmed-34079022012-07-31 Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode Rugani, Fabio Bacciardi, Silvia Rovai, Luca Pacini, Matteo Maremmani, Angelo Giovanni Icro Deltito, Joseph Dell’Osso, Liliana Maremmani, Icro Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Ecstasy use is generally chosen by adolescents and young adults for its entactogenic properties (the production of feelings of empathy, love, and emotional closeness to others.) Despite this desired and frequently realized outcome, Ecstasy use has often resulted in the genesis of psychotic symptoms and aggressive behaviors, particularly after chronic and/or intensive use. Methods: To explore the negative consequences of Ecstasy use and to examine the aggressive nature oftentimes seen in many Ecstasy users we employed a case-control study model. We compared, by means of validated psychometric tests, the psychopathological symptoms (BPRS), the aggressiveness (OAS) and the social adjustment (DSM-GAF) of psychotic patients with (n = 23) and without (n = 46) recent user of Ecstasy, during their first psychotic episode and hospitalization. All 23 Ecstasy users were Ecstasy users only. Results: Almost all of the psychotic symptoms were of similar severity in both groups. Blunted affect was milder in users than in non-users, whereas hostility and aggressive behavior was significantly more severe in users than in non-users. Conclusions: psychosis with a high level of aggressiveness and violence constitutes an important ‘side-effect’ that surely runs counter to the expected entactogenic action of Ecstasy. At a patient psycho-educational level, this study suggests that the use of Ecstasy may be counterproductive with respect to user expectations. MDPI 2012-06-27 2012-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3407902/ /pubmed/22851941 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9072283 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rugani, Fabio
Bacciardi, Silvia
Rovai, Luca
Pacini, Matteo
Maremmani, Angelo Giovanni Icro
Deltito, Joseph
Dell’Osso, Liliana
Maremmani, Icro
Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title_full Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title_fullStr Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title_full_unstemmed Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title_short Symptomatological Features of Patients with and without Ecstasy Use during Their First Psychotic Episode
title_sort symptomatological features of patients with and without ecstasy use during their first psychotic episode
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407902/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22851941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9072283
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