Mephedrone administration study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mephedrone: a single-dose administration study to determine human pharmacokinetics after nasal insufflation and to detect mephedrone and its metabolites in novel biological matrices
IRAS ID
202317
Contact name
Paul Dargan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 2 days
Research summary
Mephedrone is a new/novel psychoactive substance (NPS) that is used as a recreational drug, producing similar effects to amphetamine. Despite its ban in the UK in April 2010, mephedrone is still the most commonly used NPS in the country.
Despite mephedrone’s popularity amongst recreational drug users, there has not been much research done to understand how the human body absorbs, distributes, metabolises (breaks down) and removes the drug. So far only one controlled human administration study has been conducted. Besides this, most of the available data comes from animal models and analysis of blood samples from individuals presenting to hospitals with acute mephedrone toxicity. These results are difficult to interpret and provide little reliable information on the way that the human body handles mephedrone.
The aim of this project is to conduct a controlled human administration study involving nasal insufflation (snorting) of a small known amount of mephedrone by healthy male volunteers. Conventional samples (blood, urine and hair) as well as alternative biological matrices (oral fluid, breath, dried blood spots, head sweat and fingermark deposits) will be collected at specific time points and analysed for the presence of mephedrone and its metabolites (break down products). The use of alternative biological matrices is of interest as they are increasingly used outside the hospital setting because they require less stringent storage than blood/urine and can be easier to collect in a non-specialist setting like a drug treatment centre, the roadside or in prisons.
The study will aid doctors in treating patients with mephedrone related problems, such as mephedrone dependency, and will also be of significant value in interpreting results in the evidential analysis of mephedrone, for example at addiction treatment centres, prisons, crime scenes and in roadside and workplace drug testing.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1342
Date of REC Opinion
8 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion