The poster ‘Effects of acute social stress and consumption of “ecstasy” in disorders such as depression and memory impairment’ presented by María Pilar García-Pardo has been awarded third place.

The winning work shows that the combination of social stress and MDMA consumption increases the risk of developing a mental disorder like depression and cognitive impairment in mice. The authors raise the importance of taking into account this fact in order to improve the treatment of people dependent on MDMA who are exposed to stress conditions.

The study indicates that environmental factors can alter the response to drugs, including the adverse experiences occurred in life, such as social stress, that can make people more vulnerable to developing an addiction to drugs. This vulnerability is sometimes observed in the presence of drug-seeking behaviour, relapse into consumption after periods of abstinence, and increased presence of mental disorder. Stress is a common factor that increases the comorbidity between mental disorders and drug abuse. Therefore the aim of the research was to evaluate the effects of social stress, induced by the model of social defeat, combined with the administration of MDMA (Ecstasy) in depression-related behaviour and memory.

Two groups of adult male mice were used, which underwent a treatment of social defeat, with four agonistic encounters, being treated with saline or MDMA before each meeting. Subsequently, the response of mice in passive avoidance test (recognition memory) and tail suspension test (anhedonic behaviour model) was evaluated.

The results highlighted that mice who had suffered episodes of social defeat along with the administration of MDMA showed greater cognitive impairment and increased immobility.

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