Exposé: Forcing Rats to Consume Ecstasy and Speed at the University Of Sydney - Psychopharmacology Research at its Worst!

In an attempt to recreate the effects of the party drugs methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine (speed) in animals, researchers at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University are trying to replicate the lasting social behavioural effects of repeated doses of these drugs in rats.

In one experiment published last year(1) 32 female Albino Wistar rats were injected with these drugs once a week for 16 weeks to monitor them for their reactions.

After 7 weeks of this drug inducement the researchers noted a decrease in social interaction in the chronically drug-treated rats. Then to induce stress and depression in these animals they forced them to swim for extended lengths of time.

And the purpose of this study?  The researchers say it was to compare the results of this repeated weekly exposure to these drugs with experiments previously carried out in which they had studied the effects of a single day of dosing in rats.  In their publication, the experimenters acknowledge the already well-known results of using both drugs (ecstasy and speed together) in humans and the severe long- term cognitive behavioural and neurological changes.  National Health & Medical Research Council funding was provided for this experiment.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incidence of wasteful research into the effects of party drugs in animals. Numerous similar projects have been carried out at the University of Sydney.

For example in another project(2) published this year, 59 male rats were trained to self administer speed from a lever in a high temperature enclosure in an attempt to recreate the heat in dance parties or nightclubs where the drug is often consumed and the ambient temperature is high.  In order to self administer intravenously the rats underwent surgery to implant an indwelling catheter into the jugular vein and a screw assembly heat mount so that the number of drug infusions and lever presses could be recorded.  The results of this experiment included hyperthermia being observed and that high ambient temperatures encourage higher levels of drug intake in rats. An NHMRC grant was given to the researchers to conduct this experiment.

And in yet another project(3) (funded by the NHMRC) the same researchers attempted to replicate in 48 male Wistar rats the acute effects of ecstasy. They acknowledged, that in humans, regular use develops subsensitivity to the positive effects of the drug and humans thereby tended to escalate their intake over time. The researchers therefore described in this paper how they attempted to replicate ecstasy intake over 2 days to study the social interaction in male rats. Their conclusions depended in part on some assumptions about rats’ motivation, for example, classifying rearing on hind legs as “non-social behaviour”.

Also in this latter publication the researchers even acknowledged that a different strain of rat could produce a different response and suggested further research to compare the results in Albino Wistar and the Dark Agouti rat strains “would be a useful exercise”.

We strongly argue that this proposed research and the previously published research is certainly not useful!  We vehemently oppose this type of psychopharmacological research on the following grounds:

• The attempt to replicate in rats the results that are already known in humans is a waste of valuable resources.
• It is unscientific to base this research on animals. Humans are simply not large rats and the physiological, social, behaviours and anatomical differences are too great to attempt to extrapolate results to humans.
• Notwithstanding approval of the projects by the university’s ethics committee, they were quite clearly inhumane and served no purpose.
• Huge amounts of taxpayers’ money (via the NHMRC) are expended in these experiments when it could be better spent on awareness campaigns warning people of the already well-known effects of drug use.

What you can do

Please write to the NHMRC asking them to stop funding animal experiments and instead fund epidemiological studies.

• Prof. Warwick Anderson,
• NHMRC (MDP 100)
• GPO Box 9848
• Canberra,  ACT  2601
• Email:

And write to the universities expressing your disappointment of such wasteful and futile research.

Professor Gavin Brown Vice Chancellor University of Sydney NSW 2006 Email:

Professor Steven Schwartz Vice Chancellor Macquarie University NSW 2109 Email:

1. Clements, KJ, Cornish JL, Hunt, GE & McGregor, IS, Repeated weekly exposure to MDMA, methamphetamine or their combination: Long-term behavioural and neurochemical effects in rats Drug & Alcohol Dependence  (2007) Vol 86 Issues2-3, 12.1.2007 pp 183-190
2. Cornish, JL, Clemens, KJ. Thompson, MR, Callaghan, PD, Dawson, B & McGregor, IS, High ambient temperature increases intravenous methamphetamine self-administration on fixed and progressive ratio schedules in rats J Psychopharmacol (2008) 22(1) 100-110
3. Thompson, MR, Callaghan, PD, Hunt, GE & McGregor IS, Reduced sensitivity to MDMA-induced facilitation of social behaviour in MDMA pre exposed rats Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry (2008) in press