Wearable electrochemical sensors capable of noninvasive monitoring of chemical markers represent a rapidly emerging digital-health technology. Recent advances toward wearable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems have ignited tremendous interest in expanding such sensor technology to other important fields. This article reviews for the first time wearable electrochemical sensors for monitoring therapeutic drugs and drugs of abuse. This rapidly emerging class of drug-sensing wearable devices addresses the growing demand for personalized medicine, toward improved therapeutic outcomes while minimizing the side effects of drugs and the related medical expenses. Continuous, noninvasive monitoring of therapeutic drugs within bodily fluids empowers clinicians and patients to correlate the pharmacokinetic properties with optimal outcomes by realizing patient-specific dose regulation and tracking dynamic changes in pharmacokinetics behavior while assuring the medication adherence of patients. Furthermore, wearable electrochemical drug monitoring devices can also serve as powerful screening tools in the hands of law enforcement agents to combat drug trafficking and support on-site forensic investigations. The review covers various wearable form factors developed for noninvasive monitoring of therapeutic drugs in different body fluids and toward on-site screening of drugs of abuse. The future prospects of such wearable drug monitoring devices are presented with the ultimate goals of introducing accurate real-time drug monitoring protocols and autonomous closed-loop platforms toward precise dose regulation and optimal therapeutic outcomes. Finally, current unmet challenges and existing gaps are discussed for motivating future technological innovations regarding personalized therapy. The current pace of developments and the tremendous market opportunities for such wearable drug monitoring platforms are expected to drive intense future research and commercialization efforts.

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The smuggling of illicit drugs urges the development of new tools for rapid on-site identification in cargos. Current methods rely on presumptive color tests and portable spectroscopic techniques. However, these methods sometimes exhibit inaccurate results due to commonly used cutting agents, the colorful nature of the sample or because the drugs are smuggled in common goods. Interestingly, electrochemical sensors can deal with these specific problems. Herein, an electrochemical device is presented that uses affordable screen-printed electrodes for the electrochemical profiling of several illicit drugs by square-wave voltammetry (SWV). The identification of the illicit compound is based on the oxidation potential of the analyte. Hence, a library of electrochemical profiles is built upon the analysis of illicit drugs and common cutting agents. This library allows the design of a tailor-made script that enables the identification of each drug through a user-friendly interface (laptop or mobile phone). Importantly, the electrochemical test is compared by analyzing 48 confiscated samples with other portable devices based on Raman and FTIR spectroscopy as well as a laboratory standard method (i.e., gas chromatography–mass spectrometry). Overall, the electrochemical results, obtained through the analysis of different samples from confiscated cargos at an end-user site, present a promising alternative to current methods, offering low-cost and rapid testing in the field.

The added value of supervised Machine Learning (ML) methods to determine the Absolute Configuration (AC) of compounds from their Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) spectra was explored. Among all ML methods...

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Illicit drug consumption is posing critical concerns in our society causing health issues, crime-related activities and the disruption of the border trade. The smuggling of illicit drugs urges the development of new tools for rapid on-site identification in cargos. Current methods used by law enforcement offices rely on presumptive color tests and portable spectroscopic techniques. However, these methods sometimes exhibit inaccurate results due to commonly used cutting agents or because the drugs are smuggled (hidden or mixed) in colored samples. Interestingly, electrochemical sensors can deal with these specific problems. Herein, it is presented an electrochemical device that uses low-cost screen-printed electrodes for the electrochemical detection of illicit drugs by square-wave voltammetry (SWV) profiling. A library of electrochemical profiles is built upon pure and mixtures of illicit drugs with common cutting agents. This library allows the design of a tailor-made script that shows the identification of each drug through a user-friendly interface. Finally, the results obtained from the analysis of different samples from confiscated cargos at an end-user laboratory present a promising alternative to current methods offering low-cost and rapid testing in the field.

This article describes the development of an electrochemical screening strategy for 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), the regular psychoactive compound in ecstasy (XTC) pills. We have investigated the specific electrochemical profile of MDMA and its electro‐oxidation mechanisms at disposable graphite screen‐printed electrodes. We have proved that the formation of a radical cation and subsequent reactions are indeed responsible for the electrode surface passivation, as evidenced by using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and electrochemistry. Thereafter, pure cutting agents and MDMA as well as simulated binary mixtures of compounds with MDMA were subjected to square wave voltammetry at pH 7 to understand the characteristic electrochemical profile. An additional measurement at pH 12 was able to resolve false positives and negatives occurring at pH 7. Finally, validation of the screening strategy was done by measuring a set of ecstasy street samples. Overall, our proposed electrochemical screening strategy has been demonstrated for the rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of MDMA, resolving most of the false positives and negatives given by the traditional Marquis color tests, thus exhibiting remarkable promises for the on‐site screening of MDMA.

Music festivals have emerged as an important setting for the consumption of illicit drugs, harming both consumers and soci-ety. Therefore, law enforcement present at these events requires straightforward, robust and...