Lived fictions: moving from pharmacology to ethnography

While positivist science dominates the drug and alcohol research sector, alternative constructivist paradigms of inquiry into drug and alcohol use are also present. The passage of individual researchers through paradigm shifts is often difficult, and rarely documented. Different paradigms of inquiry produce different types of information. The use of the psychoactive drug methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") is discussed in light of a multidisciplinary investigation into the pharmacology and use of MDMA. The role of the author in interpreting data from both positivist and constructivist paradigms is highlighted by documenting a researchers' changes in epistemology whilst undertaking multidisciplinary research. It is concluded that multidisciplinary research into drug and alcohol use could benefit from evaluation of the processes that frame how information from both research paradigms is interpreted and integrated.