The Relationship Between Ecstasy and Rash Impulsivity - Research Paper Example

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between ecstasy and rash impulsivity. There were a total of 208 participants 82 of which were male while 126 were female and age range of 18 to 50 years (M= 23.46, SD= 5.119) who were recruited from undergraduate courses offered at Deakin University. It was found from the research that there was no significant difference in impulsivity in ecstasy users and non-users and there was no significant difference sensitivity to reward between ecstasy users and non-users. However in the two test the scores were higher in ecstasy users than non users. The study also revealed that frequency of ecstasy could be predicted by rash impulsivity and sensitivity Introduction Impulsivity is manifested by a number of clinical disorders including psychopathy, attention deficit heperactivity disorder and abuse of alcohol and drugs (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Impulsivity is a tendency manifested through quick responses with no reflection as suggested by Murray (1938) over 60 years ago. In more recent past has been taken as a multidimensional construct (Malle and Neubauer, 1991). Petry (2001) echoes that impulsivity is characterized by diminished ability to delay gratification, high level of risk taking, behavioural disinhibition ; sensitivity to reward, sensation seeking and poor planning. A study involving university students revealed that ecstasy users hd a tendency of using other illicit substances including cannabis, LSD, amphetamine and cocaine (Morgan, 1999). Several drug use theories have suggested that there is a link between drug use and risk-taking and also control of impulsive behavior. This proposal was supported by studies where self-report measures of impulsivity were used. Higher impulsivity scores were reported in drug abusers as compared to control groups comprising non abusers using the impulsivity subscale of Eysenck personality inventory (EPI) King et al. (1990). Another scale indicated that polydrug users of drugs had signifacanly high scores of impulsiveness in comparison those classified as substance abusers. It has also been established that adults who are associated drug dependence history, but a presently non dependant, had higher scores when in impulsiveness and venturesomeness in comparison to those who did not drug use history. Interesting findings have been found to be associated ecstasy users. According to a study carried out in Scotland it was found that in 209 people were ecstasy users even just once were also found to have been engaged in the use of other illegal substances like hallucigens and stimulants (Hammersley et al., 1999). Those who were heavily involved in ecstasy use confessed too have used amphetamines and cocaine than non-users and light users. It can be assumed that owing to marked tendency of being polydrug users it is in order to expect ecstasy users to have elevated impulsivity and risk taking. However, the results of investigation done on possible neurotoxic effect associated with use of ecstasy give another reason that can lead to increased impulsivity and risk-taking. Even though MDMA is closely associated with dopamine release (Nash, 1990) it has been found that its major effects seems to be causing of an increased rekleaseof serotonin (5-HT) (Steele et al., 1987). Other research findings (Ricuarte et al.,1990; McCann et al., 1994) gave the suggestions that MDMA also contained 5-HT neurotoxic effects on human body. The depletion of 5-HT has been then associated with increase in impulsivity (Brown et al., 1982; Virkkunen et al., 1994) and other behaviour that can be manifested through impaired regulation of impulse like parasuicide, abuse of drugs, impulsive fire setting and bulimia nervosa are also linked to depressed 5-HT functioning (Brewerton et al., 1990; Fishbein et al., 1989; Linnoila et al., 1989). An investigation by Morgan (1998) indicated that ecstasy consumers had a higher impusiveness and venturesomeness as compared to the values recorded the controls who were not drug users but in polydrug users who did not have any history of using ecstasy also had a high level of venturesomeness which could not be differentiated from the ecstasy using group. The level of impulsiveness was also found to correlated to amount of ecstasy consumed. This results also concurred with the finding from Parrott et al. (2000) where it was revealed that heavy consumers of ecstasy impulsiveness scores which were significantly high in comparison to the scores of the non-users although no increased venturesomeness was found in the ecstasy users. Schifano et al. (1998) also reported evidence presence of impulsivity in ecstasy users who had come o seek help on there addiction problem with 14% being found to have impulse control disorders. In a study where tri-dimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ; Cloninger et al., 1991) was used it has been revealed that there is increased level of novelty seeking in those using ecstasy when compared control groups consisting of those who had previously consumed drugs other than ecstasy and those who had not used drugs at all (Dughiero et al., 2001). It was however found from the study that ecstasy consumers who had a lower consumption experience with ecstasy appeared to score high in terms of harm avoidance, this being a clear indication of being more cautious. Gerra et al (1998) was in agreement with the findings with his report that ecstasy users of at least 25 occasions recorded a high TPQ novelty seeking scores in comparison with those of the controls even when there was an abstinence of 3 weeks. The same result was found after a 12 months period of abstinence had elapsed (Gerra et al., 2000). The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between ecstasy and rash impulsivity. While there is a clear link between impulsivity and substance use it is also known that the way in which impulsivity and substance use is measured affects the strength of this relationship. There is also a likelihood of the results differing depending on whether substance use has a basis on categorical or continuous version construct. This therefore calls for a need to investigate a linkage between ecstasy use and impulsivity for continuous and categorical perspective. The hypothesis of the study were HO There is no difference in level of rash impulsivity in users and non-users H1The level of rush impulsivity differ depending on whether one is a user or non user HO There is no difference in level of sensitivity in users and non-users H1The level of sensitivity to reward differ depending on whether one is a user or non user HO The frequency of ecstasy is not predictable by rash impulsivity and sensitivity to reward H1 The frequency of ecstasy can be predicted by rash impulsivity and sensitivity to reward Method Participants The sample consisted of 208 participants 82 of which were male while 126 were female and age range of 18 to 50 years (M= 23.46, SD= 5.119) who were recruited from undergraduate courses offered at Deakin University. As seen from table appendix 3 out of the 82 male respondent 21(25.6%) indicated they never used ecstasy while 61(74.4%) had used the drug. For the female 52 (41.3%) had not used the drug while 74(58.7%) had used the drug. This details are found in tables 1, 2, and 3 Materials Ecstasy use Participants were asked to report how often they have used ecstasy in the past year. This formed the basis for both categorical and continuous measures of ecstasy use. For the responses to this item were re-coded into 0 (non-user) or 1 (user – any value greater than 0). The 24-item sensitivity to reward (SR) subscale of the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (Torrubia, Avila, Molto & Caseras, 2001) was used in the present study. Participants give ‘yes/no’ responses to specific statements relating to sensitivity to reward (e.g., ‘Does the good prospect of obtaining money motivate you strongly to do some things?’). Values of 1 are assigned to ‘Yes’ responses, and 0 to ‘No’ responses. Participants’ responses are summed and higher scores reflect greater sensitivity to reward. The SR scale possesses adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial validity (Cooper & Gomez, 2008; Torrubia et al., 2001). The impulsiveness subscale of Eysenck and Eysenck’s (1978) Impulsiveness, Venturesomeness, and Empathy scale was used to measure rash impulsivity. This subscale consists of 19 questions which respondents answer in a Yes/No format, with responses of ‘No’ assigned a value of 0 and ‘Yes’ responses assigned values of 1. An example question is ‘Would you enjoy water skiing?’ Responses are summed to produce an overall score for rash impulsivity, with higher scores reflecting greater impulsivity. This scale has demonstrated psychometric properties (Eysenck, Pearson, Easting & Allsopp, 1985) and has been used in previous studies of ecstasy use (e.g., Parrott et al., 2000). Procedure Participants were recruited from undergraduate courses offered at Deakin University. Announcements were made at the beginning of lectures to advertise the study to students. Flyers were left at the entrance to the lecture theatre and students who were interested in participating were invited to pick up a flyer at the end of class. The flyers contained a weblink which students could use to access and fill out the survey online. All statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS for windows. Descriptive Statistics The means, standard deviations, and range of scores for each variable used in the regression analyses are presented in Table 1. The mean age of the respondent was 23.46 which is small compared to the maximum age of 50 years. Means, standard deviations, and range of actual scores for key variables Variable M SD Min Max Age in years 23.46 5.119 18 50 Rash impulsivity subscale score 5.7212 3.62748 .00 18.00 Sensitivity to reward subscale score 8.5529 4.97405 .00 18.00 Ecstasy use frequency 3.82276 3.7500 .00 18.00 Is frequency of ecstasy use predicted by rash impulsivity and sensitivity to reward t-test Independent sample t-test was used to investigate if there was a difference in scores of rash impulsivity between users and non-users of ecstasy. The results obtained from the test indicated that mean for users of 6.0148(SD=3.96248) and the mean for non user of 5.1781(SD=1.32) but this difference was not statistically significant t(206)=-1.594, p>0.05. This is an indication that the null hypothesis should be accepted. A t-test was also done to investigate if there was a difference in scores of sensitivity to reward between users and non-users of ecstasy. The results obtained from the test indicated that mean for users of 8.9630(SD=5.54413) while the mean for non-users of 7.7945(SD=3.60924) but the difference was not statistically significant t (206) = -1.623, p>0.05. The results are as illustrated in tables 4, 5, 6 and 7 Regression Analyses Regression analysis was done to find out if frequency of ecstasy could be predicted by rash impulsivity and sensitivity reward. The regression analysis indicates that frequency of ecstasy could be explained in terms of rash impulsivity and sensitivity to reward. R2= 0.22, F (2, 207) = 28.828, P Read More