Clinical Pharmacology of the Synthetic Cathinone Mephedrone.

4-Methyl-N-methylcathinone (mephedrone) is a popular new psychoactive substance (NPS) that is structurally related to the parent compound cathinone, the β-keto analogue of amphetamine. Mephedrone appeared on the street drug market as a substitute for 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) and was subsequently banned due to the potential health risks associated with its use. Nevertheless, mephedrone continues to be widely consumed among specific populations, with unique patterns of misuse. To date, most information about the biological effects of mephedrone comes from user experiences, epidemiological data, clinical cases, toxicological findings, and animal studies, whilst there are very few data regarding its human pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. This chapter reviews the available published data on patterns of mephedrone use, its acute and chronic effects, and its pharmacokinetic properties. More human research is needed to elucidate the safety, toxicity, and addiction potential of mephedrone and related NPS.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Current topics in behavioral neurosciences

• Publication date

  Unknown publication date

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/7854_2016_61PMID 28012094
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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