Ecstasy use can cause short- and long-term memory loss, and some users experience memory problems after taking just a single dose of the drug, according to British researchers.

Reuters reported June 28 that 75 percent of Ecstasy users have memory impairments, and that the damage does not seem to be limited to long-term users.

"It's almost as if there is a one-hit problem," said lead researcher Keith Laws of Hertfordshire University. "Essentially it's the same if you take only a few, or an extremely large amount of tablets."

Laws and colleagues reviewed 26 Ecstasy studies that included 600 users. "Often when you ask people who take ecstasy if they have memory problems, they say no, but when you test them, they realize that they have serious problems," he said.

The study is slated to be published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental.