Ecstasy users more prone to disease

(Reuters) - Clubbers using ecstasy to keep them dancing through the night may damage their immune systems while those suffering from depression induced by the drug could be more difficult to treat, a neuroscientist said on Wednesday.

Developed as an appetite suppressant but now used at raves and night clubs to reduce inhibitions, ecstasy has been linked to psychiatric illnesses but Dr Thomas Connor of Trinity College Dublin believes it may also put physical health at risk.

"Ecstasy has potent immunosuppressant qualities which have the ability to increase an individual's susceptibility to disease," Connor told journalists at the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual festival in Dublin.

The environment in which ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is taken further increases the risk of contracting infectious diseases