MDPV

'Bath Salts' Have Effects Similar to Meth, Ecstasy

Mephedrone, a key ingredient in the designer-drug mix sold as "bath salts" or as other substances, induces methamphetamine-like cravings in rats.

But mephedrone isn't exactly like meth, cocaine, ecstasy (MDMA), or other new designer drugs, according to rat studies led by pharmacologist Annette E. Fleckenstein, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Utah.
It has its own unique combination of effects and toxicities:

• Like meth but unlike ecstasy, rats quickly develop a craving for mephedrone and will keep pressing a lever in order to get more.
• Like meth, mephedrone increases brain levels of dopamine.
• Like ecstasy, mephedrone increases brain levels of serotonin.
• Like ecstasy, repeat doses of mephedrone damages the brain's ability to respond to serotonin (although human users of bath salts frequently binge, while ecstasy users usually don't).
• Like both ecstasy and meth, mephedrone causes the body to overheat.

"Mephedrone is a unique psychostimulant of abuse that shares pharmacological properties similar to, and yet distinct from, both meth and MDMA," Fleckenstein and colleagues conclude. "Its ability to cause subjective effects resembling MDMA reportedly likely contributes to its abuse. However, its ability to cause dopamine release greater than MDMA may be particularly problematic in that, in comparison to MDMA, this drug hay have enhanced abuse liability more resembling dopamine-releasing agents such as meth."