New psychoactive substances abuse and its clinical consequences - the case report

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

Kościuk Andrzej, Kos Michał, Drankowska Justyna, Kaleta Marcelina, Marzęda Paweł, Tchórz Michał. New psychoactive substances abuse and its clinical consequences - the case report. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(9):20-26. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3372284 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/7282 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2019; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 05.08.2019. Revised: 15.08.2019. Accepted: 20.08.2019. New psychoactive substances abuse and its clinical consequences - the case report Name Andrzej Kościuk ORCID iD http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-7884 Affiliation Research Group in the Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Principal contact for editorial correspondence. Name Michał Kos Affiliation Research Group in the Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Name Justyna Drankowska Affiliation Research Group in the Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Name Marcelina Kaleta ORCID iD http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8590-8004 Affiliation Research Group in the Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Name Paweł Marzęda ORCID iD http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1697-5497 Affiliation Research Group in the Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Name Michał Tchórz Affiliation Department of Toxicology, Medical University of Lublin Country Poland Bio Statement — Abstract Introduction: The meteoric rise of new psychoactive substances' use has been a public health problem for at least few years. Their presence was noticed by EU authorities around 2005. First cases of NPS poisoning in Poland appeared shortly thereafter, in 2008. Due to great variety of used substances and lack of information about them, precise diagnosis and targeted treatment remain a significant problem. Hereby, we present a patient with multi-drug poisoning related to NPS abuse and discuss new psychoactive substances that are often found in such cases. Aim of study: To discuss most common new psychoactive substances and their health effects on the basis of the case report Results: A 28-year old patient was admitted to the Department of Toxicology and Cardiology with symptoms suggesting acute intoxication with psychoactive substances. The patient had a history of drug abuse. A few pouches containing unidentified psychoactive substances were found near the patient. On admission, his condition was serious- he was unconscious and required mechanical ventilation. Tachycardia and aspiration pneumonia were present as well.The applied therapy focused on restoring acid- base homeostasis, electrolyte balance and mitigating toxic influence of detected drugs, with preventive antibiotic administration used as well. His general and psychological condition improved with treatment, and he was discharged from the department after ten days, with continuation of the therapy in ambulatory setting. Conclusions: An increasing amount of patients present cases of polysubstance abuse, whose treatment may prove especially difficult. Such cases require extensive therapy to prevent debilitating complications. A focus on drug regulation and patient education could diminish the number of such cases in the future. Keywords: new psychoactive substances; drug abuse; poisoning