Hassan Zurina, Bosch Oliver G, Singh Darshan, Narayanan Suresh, Kasinather B Vicknasingam, Seifritz Erich, Kornhuber Johannes, Quednow Boris B, Müller Christian P
Centre for Drug Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Malaysia.
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Front Psychiatry. 2017 Aug 18;8:152. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00152. eCollection 2017.
A feature of human culture is that we can learn to consume chemical compounds, derived from natural plants or synthetic fabrication, for their psychoactive effects. These drugs change the mental state and/or the behavioral performance of an individual and can be instrumentalized for various purposes. After the emergence of a novel psychoactive substance (NPS) and a period of experimental consumption, personal and medical benefits and harm potential of the NPS can be estimated on evidence base. This may lead to a legal classification of the NPS, which may range from limited medical use, controlled availability up to a complete ban of the drug form publically accepted use. With these measures, however, a drug does not disappear, but frequently continues to be used, which eventually allows an even better estimate of the drug's properties. Thus, only in rare cases, there is a final verdict that is no more questioned. Instead, the view on a drug can change from tolerable to harmful but may also involve the new establishment of a desired medical application to a previously harmful drug. Here, we provide a summary review on a number of NPS for which the neuropharmacological evaluation has made important progress in recent years. They include mitragynine ("Kratom"), synthetic cannabinoids (e.g., "Spice"), dimethyltryptamine and novel serotonergic hallucinogens, the cathinones mephedrone and methylone, ketamine and novel dissociative drugs, γ-hydroxybutyrate, γ-butyrolactone, and 1,4-butanediol. This review shows not only emerging harm potentials but also some potential medical applications.
人类文化的一个特点是，我们能够学会摄取源自天然植物或人工合成的化合物，以获得其精神活性作用。这些药物会改变个体的精神状态和/或行为表现，并可被用于各种目的。一种新型精神活性物质（NPS）出现并经过一段时间的实验性使用后，可以在循证基础上评估其对个人和医学的益处以及潜在危害。这可能会导致对该NPS进行法律分类，分类范围可以从有限的医学用途、有控制的供应到完全禁止该药物用于公众认可的用途。然而，通过这些措施，一种药物并不会消失，而是常常继续被使用，这最终能让人们对该药物的特性有更准确的评估。因此，只有在极少数情况下，才会有不再被质疑的最终定论。相反，对一种药物的看法可能会从可容忍变为有害，但也可能涉及为一种先前被视为有害的药物重新确立一种期望的医学应用。在此，我们对近年来神经药理学评估取得重要进展的一些NPS进行综述。它们包括帽柱木碱（“ kratom”）、合成大麻素（如“香料”）、二甲基色胺和新型血清素能致幻剂、卡西酮类的甲氧麻黄酮和甲烯二氧吡咯戊酮、氯胺酮和新型解离性药物、γ-羟基丁酸、γ-丁内酯和1,4-丁二醇。这篇综述不仅展示了新出现的潜在危害，也展示了一些潜在的医学应用。
