New Psychoactive Substances Intoxications and Fatalities during the COVID-19 Epidemic
Open accessAbstract
In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020. Stringent measures decreased consumption of some drugs, moving the illicit market to alternative substances, such as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). A systematic literature search was performed, using scientific databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and institutional and government websites, to identify reported intoxications and fatalities from NPS during the COVID-19 pandemic. The search terms were: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, coronavirus disease 2019, intox*, fatal*, new psychoactive substance, novel psychoactive substance, smart drugs, new psychoactive substance, novel synthetic opioid, synthetic opioid, synthetic cathinone, bath salts, legal highs, nitazene, bath salt, legal high, synthetic cannabinoid, phenethylamine, phencyclidine, piperazine, novel benzodiazepine, benzodiazepine analogue, designer benzodiazepines, tryptamine and psychostimulant. From January 2020 to March 2022, 215 NPS exposures were reported in Europe, UK, Japan and USA. Single NPS class intoxications accounted for 25, while mixed NPS class intoxications represented only 3 cases. A total of 130 NPS single class fatalities and 56 fatalities involving mixed NPS classes were published during the pandemic. Synthetic opioids were the NPS class most abused, followed by synthetic cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids. Notably, designer benzodiazepines were frequently found in combination with fentalogues. Considering the stress to communities and healthcare systems generated by the pandemic, NPS-related information may be underestimated. However, we could not define the exact impacts of COVID-19 on processing of toxicological data, autopsy and death investigations.
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“In accordance with Prisma guidelines [21], a literature search was performed to identify reported intoxications and fatalities from NPS during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from January 2020 to March 2022.”
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- Authors
- Lo Faro, A., Berardinelli, D., Cassano, T., Dendramis, G., Montanari, E., Montana, A., Berretta, P., Zaami, S., Busardò, F., & Huestis, M.
- Affiliations
- Department of Excellence Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, Marche Polytechnic University, 60121 Ancona, Italy
- Marche Polytechnic University (IT)
- University of Foggia (IT)
- Department of Cardiology, ARNAS Ospedale Civico di Cristina Benfratelli, 90127 Palermo, Italy
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità (IT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Thomas Jefferson University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zaami, Simona
- ORCID
- Venue
- Biology
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-02-08
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 273
- ISSN
- 2079-7737 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9953068
- OpenAlex
- W4319754802
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 1.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- The Medicine Forum (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Università Politecnica delle Marche (Università Politecnica delle Marche) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Early Warning System on Drugs (SNAP)
- Implementation of the identification and study of the effects of NPS
- Italian Department of Antidrug policies
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Toxicology › Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Poisoning and overdose treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Keywords
- new psychoactive substances, COVID-19 pandemic, drug poisoning, drug-related deaths, synthetic opioids, synthetic cathinones, synthetic cannabinoids, designer benzodiazepines, fentanyl analogs, illicit drug markets, toxicological data
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