English 
Italian New psychoactive substances: a descriptive review
AUTORI
1 National Centre on Addiction and Doping, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy
. 2 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences University of Foggia, Italy.
ABSTRACT
New psychoactive substances: a descriptive review
New psychoactive substances (NPS) are psychotropic drugs, that are used as alternatives to the classical scheduled drugs of abuse and are not under control of the United Nations’ 1961 Narcotic Drugs/1971 Psychotropic Substances conventions. NPS is a umbrella generic term including new synthetic and natural drugs such as synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic opioids, hallucinogens, synthetic cathinones and other stimulants. Many NPS were originally developed as therapeutic drug candidates and/or as pharmacological tools to investigate endogenous systems, although none of them were clinically tested. Due to the absence of experimental and clinical data of on NPS, pharmacological and toxicological data are rarely available. Therefore, NPS use may induce unknown and unexpected effects, including acute and chronic toxic effects, as reported in numerous cases of intoxication and deaths in Europe and worldwide. The rapid emergence of a large number of NPS on the global drug market poses a significant risk to public health and a challenge to drug policy. The present manuscript provides an updated review of the large number of new/novel/emerging psychoactive substances and their associated psychopathological consequences.