Ranking the Harm of Psychoactive Drugs Including Prescription Analgesics to Users and Others-A Perspective of German Addiction Medicine Experts.

ABSTRACT: Background: Over the past 15 years, comparative assessments of psychoactive substance harms to both users and others have been compiled by addiction experts. None of these rankings however have included synthetic cannabinoids or non-opioid prescription analgesics (NOAs, e.g., gabapentinoids) despite evidence of increasing recreational use. We present here an updated assessment by German addiction medicine experts, considering changing Western consumption trends-including those of NOAs. Methods: In an initial survey, 101 German addiction medicine physicians evaluated both physical and psychosocial harms (in 5 dimensions) of 33 psychoactive substances including opioids and NOAs, to both users and others. In a second survey, 36 addiction medicine physicians estimated the relativ

SUBMITTER: Bonnet U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7649209 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature