Greater empathy in MDMA users

Abstract

Background: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is widely known for its positive acute effects on social behaviour, such as increasing empathy, whilst also attenuating the negative impact of social exclusion. However there is a scarcity of research that investigates the long-term impact of recreational MDMA use on these fundamental social processes. Method: Sixty-seven individuals were split into three groups based on their drug-use history: poly-drug MDMA users (n = 25), poly-drug users who do not use MDMA (n = 19), alcohol-only users (n = 23), and were tested in an independent groups design. Participants completed both a self-report measure of emotional and cognitive empathy, along with the Multifaceted Empathy Task – a computerised assessment of empathy – and the Cyberball Game – a social exclusion paradigm. Results: MDMA users had significantly greater subjective emotional empathy, and greater cognitive empathy on the computer task compared with the poly-drug users who do not use MDMA. There were no significant differences in subjective responses to social exclusion between the groups. Indices of MDMA use did not correlate with empathy. Conclusions: Long-term MDMA users in this sample exhibited normal psychosocial functioning in regard to empathy and social pain and had higher subjective emotional empathy. This conflicts with previous suggestions that moderate, long-term MDMA use may cause heightened social distress, and is further evidence of the safety of the drug, which is relevant to considerations of its therapeutic use.

Modulation of Social Cognition via Hallucinogens and “Entactogens”

“…It has been reported that recreational MDMA users showed increased cognitive, but not emotional, empathy compared to controls on the MET and the MASC (87, 88). Furthermore, they exhibited less-self-serving behavior on a money allocation task played with a stranger (87).…”

Social cognition in addiction

“…Wunderli at el (140) and Carlyle et al (139) both showed that chronic MDMA use was not associated with changes of the emotional empathy domain of the MET.…”

“…The valence-dependent acute effects of MDMA were found in an emotional face recognition task (132,133) and the RMET (136), whereas cognitive empathy performance measured with the MET was not affected by acute MDMA intake (133,137,138). In contrast to the acute effects, two studies have recently shown that chronic users of MDMA exhibit superior cognitive empathy compared to controls when assessed with complex emotionally laden scenes from the MET (139,140). However, as lower cognitive empathy was clearly correlated with higher MDMA concentrations in hair, one of the author groups concluded that the differences at the group level were likely explained by higher social affiliation motivations of the users, while at higher chronic doses MDMA might nevertheless impair cognitive empathy (140).…”

“…However, as lower cognitive empathy was clearly correlated with higher MDMA concentrations in hair, one of the author groups concluded that the differences at the group level were likely explained by higher social affiliation motivations of the users, while at higher chronic doses MDMA might nevertheless impair cognitive empathy (140). Moreover, the subjective response to a social exclusion paradigm (Cyberball Game) was not altered in MDMA users (139,141), although unpublished MRI data from our group have suggested increased activation of pain-related circuits such as the ACC during exclusion in MDMA users (141).…”

Dorsal raphe nucleus to anterior cingulate cortex 5-HTergic neural circuit modulates consolation and sociability

“…According to recent studies, 5-HT transmission is also involved in a series of social behaviors such as social interaction (Walsh et al, 2018), social reward and aggression (Dolen, Darvishzadeh, Huang, & Malenka, 2013). Regarding empathy, a recent study revealed an association between the salivary 5-HT levels and the empathic abilities of people (Matsunaga et al, 2017); a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene has been linked to individual differences in empathy (Gyurak et al, 2013); MDMA (±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, better known as the recreational drug “ecstasy’’), which is well known to stimulate a feeling of closeness and empathy in its users (Carlyle et al, 2019), had been confirmed to robustly increase the release of 5-HT in an activity-independent manner (Heifets & Malenka, 2016). In animal studies, Kim, et al found that microinjection of 5-HT into the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) impaired vicarious fear and altered the regularity of neural oscillations in mice (Kim et al, 2014).…”