Case report of cathinone-like designer drug intoxication psychosis and addiction with serum identification

摘要

The use of designer drugs commonly marketed as "Bath Salts" or "Energy" has dramatically risen in recent years. Fatalities and cases of aggressive behavior, even cannibalism have been recently reported in the media. However, these cases have been poorly documented. In this paper, we report a case of repetitive and similar acute psychotic episodes induced by Energy 3 intake. Comparative Analyses of Energy 3 sample and patient's serum by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry detected the presence of 2 synthetic cathinone derivatives: methylenedioxypyrovalerone and pentylone. Finally, this patient's clinical picture is characterized by the insidious development of dependence to this product. The absence of patient's personal addiction history, the late onset of this dependence, and its high intensity, suggest a high addiction potential of these substances.