This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0269881105058572v1 20/4/518    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Cole, J. C. Articles by Sumnall, H. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Cole, J. C. Articles by Sumnall, H. R. Pubmed/NCBI databases Compound via MeSH Substance via MeSH Hazardous Substances DB 3,4-METHYLENEDIOXYMETHAMPHETAMINE Medline Plus Health Information Club Drugs Drug Abuse Drugs and Young People Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The effects of stereotype threat on cognitive function in ecstasy users

K. Michailidou

Psychology Department, Liverpool University, Liverpool, UK.

L. Jerome

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Sarasota, FL, USA.

H. R. Sumnall

Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.

Stereotype threat occurs when individuals, believed to be intellectually inferior, perform badly on cognitive tests they perceive to confirm stereotypes about them. Due to the wide media coverage of studies purporting to show cognitive deficits in ecstasy users it is possible that they experience stereotype threat. This study tested ecstasy and nonecstasy using polysubstance misusers on a variety of cognitive tests after they had been exposed to stereotype threat. This priming consisted of exposing them to information about the long-term effects of ecstasy which either stated that ecstasy caused memory loss or that it did not. Ecstasy users that had been primed that ecstasy did not cause cognitive deficits performed better than the other three groups on the delayed portion of the prose recall task from the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test battery. There were no other statistically significant differences between any of the groups on any of the other cognitive tests used. This suggests that stereotype threat exists in ecstasy users and may be influencing their performance in experiments designed to identify cognitive deficits. In order to prevent this occurring in future studies, experimenters must be careful how they conduct their experiments and discuss their results with the media.

Key Words: ecstasy • MDMA • stereotype threat • cognition • polysubstance misuse

This version was published on July 1, 2006

Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 20, No. 4, 518-525 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0269881105058572


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Bedi and J. Redman Metamemory in recreational ecstasy polydrug users: what do self-reports of memory failures mean? J Psychopharmacol, November 1, 2008; 22(8): 872 - 881. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. S. Krebs and P.-O. Johansen No Evidence of Decrease in Cognitive Function in Users of Low-Dose Ecstasy Arch Gen Psychiatry, February 1, 2008; 65(2): 236 - 236. [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. R Sumnall and M. A Bellis Can health campaigns make people ill? The iatrogenic potential of population-based cannabis prevention J Epidemiol Community Health, November 1, 2007; 61(11): 930 - 931. [Full Text] [PDF]