[Analysis of online reports on the potential misuse of benzidamine]. / Analisi dei report online relativi al potenziale uso errato della benzidamina.

Benzydamine/Tantum Rosa is a drug for external use. It is typically available in Europe, without the need of a medical prescription, for the treatment of vaginal inflammatory processes. Between December 2009 and January 2010, the Milan and Pavia (I) Poison Centres have identified some 50 cases of inappropriate benzydamine ingestion. Reasons for this misuse have been attributed to an allegedly misleading television advert. However, the recreational misuse of benzydamine is a well-known phenomenon in Brazil and in some EU countries as well, notably in Poland and Romania. It is here suggested that the recent increase in benzydamine misuse reports in Italy may well be associated with a parallel increase in level of online information regarding the molecule potential for misuse. According to the online reports, benzydamine is typically taken at a dosage of 1-4 sachets, dissolved in water and ingested orally. Its intake may be associated with hallucinations (mostly visual), sleeping disorders and euphoria. Only future, prospective, studies will confirm and better describe the benzydamine misuse potential.

Phenomenon of new drugs on the Internet: the case of ketamine derivative methoxetamine.

On the basis of the material available both in the scientific literature and on the web, this paper aims to provide a pharmacological, chemical and behavioural overview of the novel compound methoxetamine. This is a dissociative drug related to ketamine, with a much longer duration of action and intensity of effects. A critical discussion of the availability of information on the web of methoxetamine as a new recreational trend is here provided. Those methodological limitations, which are intrinsically associated with the analysis of online, non-peer reviewed, material, are here discussed as well. It is concluded that the online availability of information on novel psychoactive drugs, such as methoxethanine, may constitute a pressing public health challenge. Better international collaboration levels and novel forms of intervention are necessary to tackle this fast-growing phenomenon.