Health Protection Research Unit for Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4HH, United Kingdom; College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Mosul, Iraq.
National Poisons Information Service (Newcastle Unit), Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Wolfson Unit, Claremont Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, United Kingdom.
Int J Drug Policy. 2020 Mar;77:102672. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102672. Epub 2020 Feb 4.
There have been recent increases in use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) associated with acute health harms including hospital presentations due to toxicity and increasing numbers of deaths. In response, the UK Government enacted generic legislation on 26th May 2016 (the Psychoactive Substances Act) making it an offence to produce, possess with intent to supply, supply, import or export, or possess within a custodial setting a psychoactive substance. We studied the impact of this Act on monthly frequency of enquiries made by health professionals to the UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) about NPS. We also studied five commonly used 'conventional' drugs of misuse that had been controlled prior to January 2009.
Anonymised clinical enquiries to the NPIS and accesses to the poisons information database TOXBASE were reviewed retrospectively from January 2009 to December 2018 to ascertain the trends in reported toxicity for NPS, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamines and MDMA. Data were analysed using interrupted time series analysis with the date of the PSA used as an independent predictor.
Over the period of study there were 3,866 NPIS telephone enquiries and 79,271 TOXBASE user accesses made by UK health professionals concerning NPS. There were increases in monthly TOXBASE accesses (t = 7.408, P < 0.0001) and telephone enquiries (t = 4.74, P < 0.001) over the pre-specified period January 2009 to May 2016. Comparing the period after the PSA with that before, there were significant reductions in TOXBASE accesses (t = -3.327, P < 0.001) and telephone enquiries (t = -6.97, P < 0.001), although reductions started before May 2016. There were no significant changes for the five conventional drugs. There were significant reductions in telephone enquiries (t = -3.418, P < 0.001) and non-significant reductions in TOXBASE accesses (t = -1.713, P = 0.089) for NPS between June 2016 and December 2018. Increases in telephone enquiries for cocaine and reductions TOXBASE accesses for MDMA were also observed over that period.
There have been significant recent reductions in NPIS enquiry activity relating to NPS; although these began before enactment of the PSA in May 2016.
新精神活性物质（NPS）的使用最近有所增加，这些物质与毒性相关的急性健康危害有关，包括因毒性导致的住院治疗以及死亡人数的增加。为应对这一情况，英国政府于 2016 年 5 月 26 日颁布了一般性立法（《精神活性物质法》），规定生产、意图供应、供应、进口或出口、或在羁押场所拥有精神活性物质均属犯罪行为。我们研究了该法案对英国国家毒物信息服务处（NPIS）接到的健康专业人员有关 NPS 的每月咨询频率的影响。我们还研究了五种通常被滥用的“常规”毒品，这些毒品在 2009 年 1 月之前已受到管制。
回顾性审查了 2009 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月期间 NPIS 的匿名临床咨询以及毒物信息数据库 TOXBASE 的访问情况，以确定 NPS、可卡因、海洛因、大麻、苯丙胺和摇头丸报告毒性的趋势。使用 PSA 日期作为独立预测因子进行中断时间序列分析。
在研究期间，英国卫生专业人员通过 NPIS 电话咨询了 3866 次，通过 TOXBASE 用户访问了 79271 次有关 NPS 的信息。在预先规定的 2009 年 1 月至 2016 年 5 月期间，TOXBASE 的访问量逐月增加（t=7.408，P<0.0001），电话咨询量也有所增加（t=4.74，P<0.001）。与 PSA 之前的时期相比，PSA 之后的时期 TOXBASE 的访问量（t=-3.327，P<0.001）和电话咨询量（t=-6.97，P<0.001）显著减少，尽管减少始于 2016 年 5 月之前。五种常规药物没有显著变化。在 2016 年 6 月至 2018 年 12 月期间，NPS 的电话咨询量显著减少（t=-3.418，P<0.001），TOXBASE 的访问量无显著减少（t=-1.713，P=0.089）。同期还观察到可卡因的电话咨询量增加，以及 MDMA 的 TOXBASE 访问量减少。
NPIS 与 NPS 相关的咨询活动最近显著减少；尽管这些减少始于 2016 年 5 月 PSA 颁布之前。
