Experimenting With Drugs: Knowing The Risks Of What You Are Playing With
by Anneloes Peerdeman
New Psychoactive Substances are often experimented with during festivals and are popular because of their known 鈥渇un鈥 effects on the body and mind. However, the mechanisms behind the negative side effects of the substances are often not fully characterized. During her PhD, Anne Zwartsen (neurotoxicology department at IRAS, UU) tried to clarify these mechanisms a bit further.
New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are known to have an effect on the central nervous system. Hallucinating, a rise in heartbeat and irritability are effects often taken for granted and may be experienced as fun to experiment with. More severe symptoms such as having seizures, psychosis and long term brain damage show how dangerous drug use can be.
Anne: 鈥淥ne of the dangers of drug use is that people tend to forget that not all human bodies react in the same way to a certain drug鈥. Due to genetics, not everyone has the same composition of receptors in the brain to which the drug can bind, resulting in different effects. Other parameters such as stress, body temperature or a combination with other drugs, alcohol and medicine could also contribute to different drug effects per individual.
One of the dangers of drug use is that people tend to forget that not all human bodies react in the same way to a certain drug.
During her PhD, Anne screened the toxicity of 20 different NPS by the use of a Micro Electrode Array (MEA). With this technique she was able to measure the brain activity of rat cortical cells and expose them to the NPS. The intensity and way in which the substances influenced this activity, determined their toxicity. In the MEA, she also tested on cardiomyocytes and found that these drugs have a direct effect on the heart, which was previously thought to be an indirect effect stimulated by the brain.
Besides the side effects they cause, NPS are also hard to regulate. Anne: 鈥淭he structure of an existing illegal drug can be slightly changed by the manufacturers to form a new drug. This new drug can reach the market again and will not be illegalized straight away鈥. This results in an ongoing fabrication of new synthetic drugs of which the health effects are often unknown. With more insights regarding the mechanisms behind the effects of NPS, Anne hopes the consumers will be better informed and that the new drugs are regulated faster.