Department of Psychology, School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
Brain Res. 2020 May 15;1735:146740. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146740. Epub 2020 Feb 19.
Mephedrone and MDMA are both constituents of party drugs, with mephedrone being relatively new compared to MDMA. This review compares current knowledge regarding the patterns of usage and neuropsychobiological effects of both mephedrone and MDMA. Both drugs share common psychoactive effects, the duration of which is significantly shorter with mephedrone use, attributing towards a pattern of binge use among users. Both drugs have also been associated with adverse health, psychiatric, and neurocognitive problems. Whilst there is extensive research into the psychobiological problems induced by MDMA, the evidence for mephedrone is comparatively limited. The adverse effect profile of mephedrone appears to be less severe than that of MDMA. Users often believe it to be safer, although both drugs have been associated with overdoses. The neurotoxic potential of mephedrone appears to be low, whereas MDMA can cause long-term damage to the serotonergic system, although this needs further investigation. The abuse liability of mephedrone is significantly greater than that of MDMA, raising concerns regarding the impact of lifetime usage on users. Given that mephedrone is relatively new, the effects of long-term exposure are yet to be documented. Future research focused on lifetime users may highlight more severe neuropsychobiological effects from the drug.
麦角酸二乙酰胺（MDMA）和 4-甲基甲卡西酮（Mephedrone）都是派对药物的成分，与 MDMA 相比，Mephedrone 相对较新。本综述比较了关于这两种药物的使用模式和神经心理生物学效应的现有知识。这两种药物具有共同的精神活性作用，而 Mephedrone 的作用持续时间明显更短，这导致了使用者的狂欢使用模式。这两种药物也与不良健康、精神和神经认知问题有关。虽然有大量关于 MDMA 引起的精神生物学问题的研究，但关于 Mephedrone 的证据相对较少。Mephedrone 的不良影响谱似乎不如 MDMA 严重。使用者通常认为它更安全，尽管这两种药物都与过量有关。Mephedrone 的神经毒性潜力似乎较低，而 MDMA 会对 5-羟色胺能系统造成长期损害，但这需要进一步研究。Mephedrone 的滥用倾向明显大于 MDMA，这引发了对使用者终身使用的影响的担忧。鉴于 Mephedrone 相对较新，长期暴露的影响尚未被记录。未来专注于终身使用者的研究可能会突出该药物更严重的神经心理生物学影响。
