This article reviews clinical, toxicological, and legal issues related to designer drug abuse, with a focus on synthetic cathinones (bath salts). Synthetic cathinones are amphetamine-type central nervous system (CNS) stimulants that produce similar effects to amphetamine. Like amphetamine, synthetic cathinones can also result in neurological and cardiovascular side-effects consistent with sympathomimetic toxicity. The differential for a patient presenting with the signs and symptoms of synthetic cathinone toxicity is broad, and laboratory testing for synthetic cathinones is of limited value in acute management. If a diagnosis of cathinone-induced delirium is suspected, treatment efforts should focus on controlling agitation and then treating medical complications such as metabolic acidosis. Physicians should be aware of these new drugs, not only to optimally treat patients, but also to raise awareness of the dangers of designer drug use through patient counseling and community outreach programs.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
7
14%
Medicine and Dentistry
6
12%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
5
10%
Psychology
4
8%
Chemistry
4
8%
Other
8
16%
Unknown
16
32%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 August 2018.
All research outputs
#12,646,147
of 22,834,308 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
#651
of 933 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#170,176
of 386,429 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
#5
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,834,308 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 933 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 16.0. This one is in the 30th percentile – i.e., 30% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 386,429 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 4 of them.
