BACKGROUND Immunoassay-based screening for amphetamines has a variable positive predictive value (PPV) for detecting amphetamine abuse. The lack of immunoassay specificity necessitates confirmatory testing by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), but the technical complexity and expense of GC/MS limit its availability. Physicians may make decisions regarding patient disposition based on...

Novel psychoactive substances are newly used designer drugs ("internet drugs", "research chemicals", "legal highs") potentially posing similar health risks to classic illicit substances. Chemically, many novel psychoactive substances can be classified as phenethylamines, amphetamines, synthetic cathinones, piperazines, pipradrols/piperidines, aminoindanes benzofurans, and tryptamines. Pharmacol...

ISSN 1758-2008 10.2217/NPY.11.63 © 2011 Future Medicine Ltd Neuropsychiatry (2011) 1(6), 591–598 Summary This review examines the diagnostic validity of adult ADHD on the basis of phenomenology, genetics, course of illness and treatment response in the context of a diagnostic hierarchy. In addition, it examines ADHD treatment options, particularly amphetamine use, associated risks and the clini...

AIMS To examine the empirical consequences of officially tolerated retail sales of cannabis in the Netherlands, and possible implications for the legalization debate. METHODS Available Dutch data on the prevalence and patterns of use, treatment, sanctioning, prices and purity for cannabis dating back to the 1970s are compared to similar indicators in Europe and the United States. RESULTS Th...

The first highly chemo- and enantioselective hydrogenation of α,β-disubstituted nitroalkenes was accomplished with rhodium/JosiPhos-J2 as a catalyst, with the yield and enantioselectivity of up to 95% and 94%, respectively. The α-chiral nitroalkanes will provide an entry to valuable chiral amphetamines which are otherwise not so easily accessed.

Numerous recent studies indicate that when amphetamines are administered continuously or in high doses, they exert long-lasting toxic effects on dopamine (DA) neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). Specifically, it has been shown that amphetamines can decrease the content of brain DA, reduce the number of synaptosomal DA uptake sites and selectively depress the in vitro activity of neostr...