PMID- 31039545
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20190617
LR  - 20191210
IS  - 1872-6283 (Electronic)
IS  - 0379-0738 (Linking)
VI  - 299
DP  - 2019 Jun
TI  - Lessons to be learned from toxicological analyses in intoxicated patients and 
      seized materials at an electronic music dance festival.
PG  - 174-179
LID - S0379-0738(18)30683-2 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.047 [doi]
AB  - Medical problems related to illicit drug use are frequently encountered at 
      electronic dance music (EDM) events. In this prospective study, the medical 
      problems and toxicological analyses on intoxicated persons and seized materials 
      are described jointly. The aim of this study is to find out to what extent these 
      efforts may assist in developing prevention strategies and organising on-site 
      care at EDM events. The most frequently encountered clinical presentation in the 
      121 included patients was: agitation/aggression (26%), drunkenness (25%), 
      depressed level of consciousness (24%) and hallucinations (9%). Only five 
      patients were transported by ambulance to a hospital. In 100 of the 121 included 
      patients (83%) an ethanolemia of at least 0.50 g/L was measured (with ethanol as 
      the only drug found in 47 cases). 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) was 
      detected in 54% of the blood samples, cocaine in 11%, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid 
      (GHB) in 11%, amphetamine in 7%, ketamine in 6% and a new psychoactive substance 
      (NPS) in 4%. Except for 8 MDMA-users poly drug use was found in all these cases. 
      The 178 seized samples most frequently contained MDMA (31%), cannabis (28%) or no 
      active substance (15%). In 11 samples (6%) an NPS was detected. Of particular 
      interest was a tablet containing 4-chloromethamphetamine (a previously unknown 
      neurotoxic NPS), 4-chloroamphetamine, para-methoxyamphetamine, 
      para-methoxymethamphetamine and ethylone. Our data show that at EDM events 
      ethanol and MDMA are still the party drugs causing most health hazards and that 
      NPS only play a minor role. Regarding the toxicological efforts, we recommend to 
      analyse all seized materials from an EDM event, but only blood samples from the 
      most severely intoxicated patients.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Calle, Paul
AU  - Calle P
AD  - Ghent University, Belgium; Emergency Department, General Hospital Maria 
      Middelares, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: paul.calle@ugent.be.
FAU - Maudens, Kristof
AU  - Maudens K
AD  - Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
FAU - Lemoyne, Sabine
AU  - Lemoyne S
AD  - Emergency Department, University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
FAU - Geerts, Simon
AU  - Geerts S
AD  - Emergency Department, University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium; The Flemish Cross, 
      Mechelen, Belgium.
FAU - Van Sassenbroeck, Diederik
AU  - Van Sassenbroeck D
AD  - Emergency Department, General Hospital Maria Middelares, Ghent, Belgium.
FAU - Jensen, Peter
AU  - Jensen P
AD  - Ambulance medic, Antwerp, Belgium.
FAU - Van Overloop, Jorne
AU  - Van Overloop J
AD  - Emergency Department, University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium; The Flemish Cross, 
      Mechelen, Belgium.
FAU - Deconinck, Eric
AU  - Deconinck E
AD  - Medicines laboratory, Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.
FAU - Blanckaert, Peter
AU  - Blanckaert P
AD  - Belgian Early Warning System Drugs, Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20190406
PL  - Ireland
TA  - Forensic Sci Int
JT  - Forensic science international
JID - 7902034
RN  - 0 (Blood Alcohol Content)
RN  - 0 (Illicit Drugs)
SB  - IM
MH  - Alcoholic Intoxication/*epidemiology
MH  - Belgium/epidemiology
MH  - *Blood Alcohol Content
MH  - Emergency Medical Services
MH  - Humans
MH  - Illicit Drugs/*blood
MH  - Law Enforcement
MH  - Mass Behavior
MH  - Prospective Studies
MH  - Substance Abuse Detection
MH  - Substance-Related Disorders/blood/*epidemiology
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Electronic dance music event
OT  - Ethanol
OT  - New psychoactive substances
OT  - Party drugs
EDAT- 2019/05/01 06:00
MHDA- 2019/06/18 06:00
CRDT- 2019/05/01 06:00
PHST- 2018/08/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2019/03/29 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2019/03/31 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2019/05/01 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2019/06/18 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2019/05/01 06:00 [entrez]
AID - S0379-0738(18)30683-2 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.047 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Forensic Sci Int. 2019 Jun;299:174-179. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.047. 
      Epub 2019 Apr 6.