Spotlight on Research

As this paper intimates, patterns of recreational drug use are changing; while the vast majority of UK drug deaths are still related to opioids (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2012), ‘traditional’ club drugs such as MDMA (Ecstasy) are showing a decreasing trend in use. Indeed, in its introduction, this paper presents some interesting data suggesting MDMA use has fallen from 79.3% to 48.4% among club goers during a 10-year period (1999–2009).

Emerging evidence suggests that novel psychoactive substances (NPS) may be taking the place of older club drugs—in particular the synthetic cathiones such as mephedrone (also known as ‘meow, meow’, snow, bubbles). Paramedics are often the first-contact practitioners in calls involving recreational drug use and face increasing challenges in identifying the agents involved, relying on physical findings at scene.

This paper offers case report data relating to the clinical patterns of toxicity related to mephedrone. During a 2-year period from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2009, retrospective analysis of a clinical toxicology database from an inner city ED was conducted for self-reported use of mephedrone. The review gathered data on age, sex, physiological signs and symptoms, as well as other co-ingested drugs; additional analysis included length of stay and complications.