title: The potential utility of some legal highs in CNS disorders.
abstract: Over the last decade there has been an explosion of new drugs of abuse, so called legal highs or novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Many of these abused drugs have unknown pharmacology, but their biological effects can be anticipated from their molecular structure and possibly also from online user reports. When considered with the findings that some prescription medications are increasingly abused and that some abused drugs have been tested clinically one could argue that there has been a blurring of the line between drugs of abuse and clinically used drugs. In this review we examine these legal highs/NPS and consider whether, based on their known or predicted pharmacology, some might have the potential to be clinically useful in CNS disorders.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George's University of London, London SW17 0RE, United Kingdom. Electronic address: cdavidso@sgul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schifano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: Legal high; Novel psychoactive substance; Pharmacotherapy; Treatment