Captagon: use and trade in the Middle East

Al-Imam, Ahmed; Santacroce, Rita; Román-Urrestarazu, Andrés; Chilcott, Robert P.; Bersani, Giuseppe; Martinotti, Giovanni; Corazza, Ornella

doi:10.1002/hup.2548

Cited by 43 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This study can be further developed in subsequent designs in the future, to correlate the visual analytic skills with cognitive enhancers, a subset of psychoactive and novel psychoactive substances (NPS) (17,18). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lateralization of Brain Functions: A Randomized Single-Blinded Observational Study

Al-Imam

2018

Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Cerebral dominance, also known as lateralization of brain functions, is the neurologic phenomenon in which one hemisphere dominates over the other. In humans, the majority of people are of left cerebral dominance. This study aims to derive a statistical inference between determined parameters of cerebral dominance (handedness, gender, and language skills) and the 3-dimensional visual analytic skills.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lateralization of Brain Functions: A Randomized Single-Blinded Observational Study

Al-Imam

2018

Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These "recreational" events used to take place in the home environment while his parents were away. Moreover, he experimented with a variety of amphetamines and amphetamine-type stimulants, including the renowned NPS known as Captagon (20). These substances were also taken together with the use of hookah, alcohol, and cigarettes.…”

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

25b-NBOMe: A Case Report of Sudden Death and Insightful View of Google Trends Data

Al-Imam

2018

Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: The phenethylamine derivative 25b-NBOMe is a potent hallucinogen and a serotoninergic agonist. Other forms of NBOMe also exist, including 25c-NBOMe and the more powerful 25i-NBOMe. 25b-NBOMe has been incriminated with cases of intoxication among teenagers and adults worldwide. Case Presentation:This manuscript is an analytic storytelling of a tragic case of death induced by the 25b-NBOMe substance abuse by a 17-year-old male who was completely healthy and a charismatic high school student. Recreationally, the patient had ingested three sublingual tablets of 25b-NBOMe. Unfortunately, this psychedelic trip has put an end to his life. The reason for death was reported to be cardiac arrest, because of the cardiac arrhythmia. The concentration of 25b-NBOMe detected in postmortem heart blood was 3.14 ng/mL. Conclusions:This case represents one of the very few documented cases in the literature, which ended in death from the 25b variant. It is to be concluded that these death incidents can be attributed either to an idiosyncratic reaction or to the presence of an unknown mixture of different ingredients and contaminants in these designer drugs. This case report is the first in published literature to be also correlated with data from Google trends databases.

show abstract

“…1 While fenethylline addiction has historically been regionally confined, increased production and global trafficking of counterfeit tablets from Syria has been implicated as a source of revenue for militant groups to fund operations. 1–3,16,17 Furthermore, as with the use amphetamine and methamphetamine in prior conflicts, fenethylline has been identified as a source of pharmacological morale in battle. 3,4,18–20 The ultimate source of fenethylline’s psychoactive effects has historically been a debated subject, with some results supporting the position that the parent compound itself exhibits psychoactive effects distinct from those of other central stimulants, while others posit that it acts as merely an amphetamine prodrug.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccine-driven pharmacodynamic dissection and mitigation of fenethylline psychoactivity

Wenthur

Zhou

Janda

2017

Nature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARY PARAGRAPH Fenethylline, also known as Captagon, is a synthetic psychoactive stimulant that has recently been linked to substance use disorder and ‘pharmacoterrorism’ in the Middle East.1–4 Although fenethylline shares a common phenethylamine core with other amphetamine-type stimulants, it additionally incorporates a covalently-linked xanthine moiety into its parent structure.5,6 These independently-active pharmacophores are liberated during metabolism, resulting in a structurally-diverse chemical mixture being deployed to the central nervous system.7–9 Although fenethylline’s psychoactive properties have been reported to differ from other synthetic stimulants, the in vivo chemical complexity it manifests upon ingestion has impeded efforts to unambiguously identify the specific species responsible for these effects.10,11 Here we develop a ‘dissection through vaccination’ approach, called DISSECTIV, to mitigate fenethylline’s psychoactivity and show that its rapid-onset and distinct psychoactive properties are facilitated by functional synergy between theophylline and amphetamine. Our results demonstrate that incremental vaccination against single chemical species within a multi-component mixture can be used to uncover emergent properties arising from polypharmacologic activity. We anticipate that DISSECTIV will be employed to expose unidentified active chemical species and illuminate pharmacodynamic interactions within other chemically complex systems, such as those found in counterfeit or illegal drug preparations, post-metabolic tissue samples, and natural product extracts.

show abstract

Captagon: use and trade in the Middle East

Cited by 43 publications

References 24 publications

Lateralization of Brain Functions: A Randomized Single-Blinded Observational Study

Lateralization of Brain Functions: A Randomized Single-Blinded Observational Study

25b-NBOMe: A Case Report of Sudden Death and Insightful View of Google Trends Data

Vaccine-driven pharmacodynamic dissection and mitigation of fenethylline psychoactivity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About