A recent study claims that children who suffer anxiety and depression may be more likely to use ecstasy to relieve their symptoms in later life. This finding could again explain why ecstasy use is thought to lead to later depression, the paper in the British Medical Journal says. 1,580 people over 14 years from childhood to adulthood have been assessed by researchers at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre. Long-term exposure to ecstasy may result in an increase in depressive symptoms. And in other studies, this could explain the link that has been found between ecstasy use and later depression.