Clinical pattern of poisoning among patients declared as taking novel recreational drugs

• Authors: Anna Krakowiak , Marek Bąk , Piotr Politański , Anna Piekarska-Wijatkowska

Abstracts

EN

ObjectivesIntoxication with novel psychoactive drugs poses a significant challenge for medicine due to diagnostic difficulties, complex clinical patterns resulting from the polyethiology of poisoning, and the risk of fatal complications.Material and MethodsThe authors of the present work have made a retrospective review of medical records of the patients hospitalized at the Toxicology Unit (TU), diagnosed with poisoning by novel recreational drugs.ResultsIn 2008–2013, 576 patients diagnosed with that type of poisoning were admitted to the TU. Of those, 192 (33.3%) patients were positive for ethanol in addition to the most popular toxins found in the material collected from the patients, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (50 [8.6%] patients) and amphetamine (35 [6.1%] patients). The most frequent clinical symptoms observed on admission were: anxiety (433 [75.1%] patients), agitation (275 [47.7%] patients), and complaints associated with the circulatory system (225 [39.1%] patients). In the subgroup of 104 (18.0%) psychiatrist-interviewed people, a relationship was found between the suicidal ideation reported during history-taking and the following factors: earlier psychiatric treatment (p = 0.000), financial problems (p = 0.015) and prolonged unemployment (p = 0.022).ConclusionsThe observed clinical pattern may be associated with sympathomimetic syndrome due to poisoning by novel psychoactive substances. Preliminary results of this research show that financial problems and a history of psychiatric treatment may enhance suicidal ideation in patients after acute poisoning by psychoactive substances.

Keywords

EN

acute poisoning; clinical symptoms; novel psychoactive substances; designer drugs; suicide attempt; xenobiotic

• Publisher: Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. dra Jerzego Nofera w Łodzi
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 445-455

Dates

published

2020

Contributors

author

Anna Krakowiak

• Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Toxicology, Toxicology Unit)

author

Marek Bąk

• Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Toxicology, Toxicology Unit)

author

Piotr Politański

• Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Radiology)

author

Anna Piekarska-Wijatkowska

• Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Toxicology, Poison Information Centre)

Identifiers

DOI

10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01575

Biblioteka Nauki

2116595