Mephedrone: Difference between revisions

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Almost nothing is known about the long-term effects of mephedrone due to its short history of its use.<ref>Clubbers are 'turning to new legal high mephedrone' | http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10004366</ref> Along side of this, the median lethal dosage remains unknown and unstudied.<ref>Mephedrone, new kid for the chop? | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20735367</ref>

In 2010, unconfirmed reports speculated about the role mephedrone has played in the deaths of several young people in the UK. By July 2010, mephedrone had been alleged to be involved in 52 fatalities in the UK, but detected in only 38 of these cases. Of the nine that coroners had finished investigating, two were caused directly by mephedrone.[28] The first death reported to be caused by mephedrone use was that of 46-year-old [29] who had underlying health problems and repeatedly injected the drug.[30] A report in Forensic Science International in stated mephedrone intoxication has been recorded as the cause of death in two cases in Scotland.[31]

In 2008, an 18-year-old Swedish woman died in Stockholm after taking mephedrone. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported the woman went into convulsions and turned blue in the face.[26] Doctors reported she was comatose and suffering from hyponatremia and severe hypokalemia; the woman died one and a half days after the onset of symptoms. An autopsy showed severe brain swelling.[27]

Despite similarities to known neurotoxins such as [[methamphetamine]] and other [[cathinone]] derivatives, mephedrone does not appear to produce neurotoxic effects in the dopamine system of mice.<ref>Mephedrone, an abused psychoactive component of 'bath salts' and methamphetamine congener, does not cause neurotoxicity to dopamine nerve endings of the striatum | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22191803</ref>

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 {{Main|Research chemicals#Toxicity and harm potential}}
 Almost nothing is known about the long-term effects of mephedrone due to its short history of its use.<ref>Clubbers are 'turning to new legal high mephedrone' | http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10004366</ref> Along side of this, the median lethal dosage remains unknown and unstudied.<ref>Mephedrone, new kid for the chop? | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20735367</ref>
+In 2010, unconfirmed reports speculated about the role mephedrone has played in the deaths of several young people in the UK. By July 2010, mephedrone had been alleged to be involved in 52 fatalities in the UK, but detected in only 38 of these cases. Of the nine that coroners had finished investigating, two were caused directly by mephedrone.[28] The first death reported to be caused by mephedrone use was that of 46-year-old [29] who had underlying health problems and repeatedly injected the drug.[30] A report in Forensic Science International in stated mephedrone intoxication has been recorded as the cause of death in two cases in Scotland.[31]
+In 2008, an 18-year-old Swedish woman died in Stockholm after taking mephedrone. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported the woman went into convulsions and turned blue in the face.[26] Doctors reported she was comatose and suffering from hyponatremia and severe hypokalemia; the woman died one and a half days after the onset of symptoms. An autopsy showed severe brain swelling.[27]
 Despite similarities to known neurotoxins such as [[methamphetamine]] and other [[cathinone]] derivatives, mephedrone does not appear to produce neurotoxic effects in the dopamine system of mice.<ref>Mephedrone, an abused psychoactive component of 'bath salts' and methamphetamine congener, does not cause neurotoxicity to dopamine nerve endings of the striatum | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22191803</ref>