BACKGROUND: The number of new (novel) psychoactive substances ( @entity11989 ) available in the illegal market is increasing; however, current monitoring of the drug situation in Europe focuses mainly on classical drugs of abuse, with limited emphasis on clinical presentation in the @entity341 ( @entity341 ). The European Drug Emergencies Network ( @entity7634 -DEN) is a European Commission-funded project that aims to improve the knowledge of acute @entity137 of both classical recreational drugs and @entity11989 . As a baseline for this project, we performed a study to establish which data are currently being collected and reported in Europe on @entity341 presentations with acute @entity137 related to @entity11989 and classical drugs of abuse. METHODS: We used a three-pronged approach to identify any systematic collection of data on @entity137 in Europe by i) performing a literature search, ii) utilising an online survey of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction Re seau Europe en d'Information sur les Drogues et les Toxicomanies national focal points and iii) exploiting the knowledge and resources of the @entity7634 -DEN network members. RESULTS: The literature search revealed 21 papers appropriate for assessment, but only one described a systematic collection of clinical data on @entity11989 . Twenty-seven of thirty countries responded to the online survey. More than half of all the countries (52%) did not perform any registration at all of such data, 37% collected systematic clinical data on @entity11989 at a national level, while 44% collected data on classical drugs. A few examples for good practice of systematic collection of clinical data on @entity341 presentations due to acute @entity137 were identified. CONCLUSION: The systematic collection of data on @entity341 presentation of @entity137 related to @entity11989 and classical drugs in Europe is scarce; the existing collection is limited to single centres, single countries, groups of @entity1 or not focused on novel drugs; the collection of data is highly variable between the different countries. @entity7634 -DEN, a European Commission funded project, aims at closing some of these gaps.

Current European data collection on XXXX presentations with acute recreational @entity137 : gaps and national variations.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity137 :: ('MESH:D064420', 'Disease') :: ['drug toxicity', 'toxicity', 'NPS toxicity'] @entity341 :: ('MESH:D004630', 'Disease') :: ['emergency department', 'ED'] @entity11989 :: ('MESH:D009261', 'Disease') :: ['NPS'] @entity7634 :: ('9319', 'Species') :: ['Euro']
@entity341 :: (MESH:D004630,Disease) :: ['emergency department']
