Urine Drug Tests Indicate Higher Prevalence of Combined Alcohol and Cocaine Use Compared to Alcohol Together with Cannabis or Amphetamine-A Possible Link to Cocaethylene.

Aim: This retrospective study examined the prevalence of combined ethanol and cocaine use, which produces an enhanced psychoactive effect through formation of the active metabolite cocaethylene, compared to combined use of ethanol and two other common recreational drugs, cannabis and amphetamine, based on urine drug test results.

Methods: The study was based on >30,000 consecutive samples from routine urine drug testing in 2020, and 2627 samples from acute poisonings in the STRIDA project (2010-2016), in Sweden. Drug testing for ethanol (i.

Intoxications in the STRIDA project involving a panorama of psychostimulant pyrovalerone derivatives, MDPV copycats.

Context: An increasing number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) of different chemical classes have become available through marketing and sale over the Internet. This report from the Swedish STRIDA project presents the prevalence, laboratory results, and clinical features in intoxications involving 11 stimulant pyrovalerone NPS derivatives over a 5-year period.

Study Design: Case series of consecutive patients with admitted or suspected intake of NPS presenting to Swedish hospitals for emergency treatment from January 2011 to March 2016.

Use of LC-HRMS in full scan-XIC mode for multi-analyte urine drug testing - a step towards a 'black-box' solution?

The influx of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has created a need for improved methods for drug testing in toxicology laboratories. The aim of this work was to design, validate and apply a multi-analyte liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) method for screening of 148 target analytes belonging to the NPS class, plant alkaloids and new psychoactive therapeutic drugs. The analytical method used a fivefold dilution of urine with nine deuterated internal standards and injection of 2 μl.

Intoxications involving acrylfentanyl and other novel designer fentanyls - results from the Swedish STRIDA project.

Background: The number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) introduced through the online recreational drugs market increases continuously. This report from the Swedish STRIDA project describes analytically confirmed intoxications involving the novel fentanyl analogs acrylfentanyl, 4-chloroisobutyrfentanyl (4Cl-iBF), 4-fluoroisobutyrfentanyl (4F-iBF), and tetrahydrofuranfentanyl (THF-F), and cyclopentylfentanyl in a drug product.

Methods: Patients with suspected NPS exposure presenting in emergency departments (ED) or intensive care units (ICU) in Sweden and requiring hospital care are invited to the STRIDA project.

Toxicity evaluation of α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP): results from intoxication cases within the STRIDA project.

Context: An increasing number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) of different chemical classes have become available through marketing and sale over the Internet. This report from the Swedish STRIDA project presents the prevalence, laboratory results, and clinical features in a series of intoxications involving the stimulant NPS α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP), a potent dopamine re-uptake inhibitor, over a 4-year period.

Study Design: Observational case series of consecutive patients with admitted or suspected intake of NPS presenting to hospitals in Sweden from 2012 to 2015.