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Designer Drugs

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Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions

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Abstract

Substance use, for the most part, encompasses plant products and diverted pharmaceuticals. Other substances called designer drugs, novel psychoactive substances (bath salts/flakka, spice/K2/Bombay Blue, pinky, N-bomb), possess similar chemical structures or pharmacological profiles to known or familiar substance use. According to the Monitoring the Future Survey of 2019, 3.3% of high school seniors used synthetic cannabinoids in the past year, 2.2% of them used methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (ecstasy/molly) and 4.6% of them used hallucinogens. The chemical properties of designer drugs are uncertain, posing a challenge to detect or identify them accurately. The risk of cardiac arrest, coma, cognitive impairment, and death is not uncommon among users. In this chapter, we will discuss several typical designer drug classes: synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic stimulants, synthetic hallucinogens, and synthetic opioids. We will cover their mechanism of action, metabolism, mode of detection, potential treatment, and management as well as their adverse reactions and life-threatening consequences, which are critical keys to mitigating potential dire health consequences associated with these substances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Neelambika Revadigar & Ching Tary Yu

  2. McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Isabelle Silverstone-Simard

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  1. Neelambika Revadigar
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  2. Ching Tary Yu
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Correspondence to Neelambika Revadigar .

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  1. Department of Psychiatry New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Evaristo Akerele

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Revadigar, N., Yu, C.T., Silverstone-Simard, I. (2022). Designer Drugs. In: Akerele, E. (eds) Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84834-7_16

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