Projects per year
Abstract
Background and aims: The United Kingdom (UK) Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA), implemented on the 26 th May 2016, made the production, supply and sale of all non-exempted psychoactive substances illegal. The aim of this study was to measure trends in hospital presentations for severe toxicity following analytically confirmed synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist (SCRA) exposure before and after implementation of the PSA. Design: Observational study. Setting: Thirty-four hospitals across the UK participating in the Identification of Novel Psychoactive Substances (IONA) study. Participants: A total of 627 (79.9% male) consenting individuals who presented to participating hospitals between July 2015 and December 2019 with severe acute toxicity and suspected novel psychoactive substances exposure. Measurements: Toxicological analyses of patient samples were conducted using liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry. Time-series analysis was conducted on the monthly number of patients with and without analytically confirmed SCRA exposure using Poisson segmented regression. Findings: SCRAs were detected in 35.7% (n = 224) of patients. After adjusting for seasonality and the number of active sites, models showed no clear evidence of an upward or downward trend in the number of SCRA exposure cases in the period before (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.12; 95% CI, 0.99–1.26; P = 0.068) or after (IRR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.94–1.01; P = 0.202) the implementation of the PSA. There was also no clear evidence of an upward or downward trend in non-SCRA exposure cases before (IRR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.98–1.27; P = 0.105) or after (IRR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.98–1.04; P = 0.478) implementation of the PSA. Conclusions: There is no clear evidence of an upward or downward trend in the number of patients presenting to UK hospitals with severe acute toxicity following analytically confirmed synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist exposure since the implementation of the Psychoactive Substances Act.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2899-2906 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Addiction |
Volume | 117 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 6 Jun 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The IONA study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (NIHR HPRU) for Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards at Newcastle University. This work was supported in part by MR/N0137941/1 for the GW4 BIOMED MRC DTP, awarded to the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter from the Medical Research Council (MRC)/UKRI. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, the Department of Health, Public Health England or the MRC.
We acknowledge with gratitude the work done by the research staff in all IONA sites and thank all the participants for allowing their data and samples to be used for this study
Keywords
- NPS
- PSA
- Psychoactive Substances Act
- SCRA
- synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists
- time series analysis
- toxicity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Psychiatry and Mental health
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Dive into the research topics of 'Trends in hospital presentations following analytically confirmed synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist exposure before and after implementation of the 2016 UK Psychoactive Substances Act'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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Point-of-care detection of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists
Husbands, S. (PI), Blagbrough, I. (CoI) & Scott, J. (CoI)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/07/21 → 30/06/24
Project: Research council
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Point-of-care detection of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists
Pudney, C. (PI)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/07/21 → 31/07/24
Project: Research council