EMBARGOED UNTIL
12:30 PM ET April 23, 2013
ONSITE NEWSROOM
Boston Convention Center
April 20-24, 2013
Phone: 617-954-3976
Media@faseb.org
PRIMARY CONTACT
Jim Bernstein
jbernstein@aspet.org
Cell/text: 301-646-3259
New Designer Drug, “Bath Salts,” May Confer Additional Risk for Adolescents
BOSTON — Use and abuse of “bath salts,” a new group of designer drugs, have been increasing
in recent years, particularly among teenagers. Poison control centers received over 2,000 calls
last year for patients with delusions, hallucinations and paranoia following “bath salt” use.
Although the synthetic compounds found in “bath salts” are routinely changing in order to
circumvent laws on banned substances, federal legislation recently added MDPV, a common
constituent in “bath salts,” to the list of Schedule 1 drugs – a list that includes cocaine,
methamphetamine, ecstasy and other stimulants similar to MDPV.
Andrew Merluzzi, an undergraduate researcher at American University’s Psychopharmacology
Laboratory in Washington, DC, uses animal models to study how vulnerability to drug use and
abuse differs between adolescents and adults.
Although drug abuse research commonly focuses on reward, there is also another affective
property of the drug, its aversive effect, which might limit drug intake. By pairing ingestion of a
sweet solution with an injection of a drug over several conditioning trials, researchers are able to
measure this aversive effect. Previous research has shown that adolescent rats typically find
drugs less aversive than their adult counterparts, possibly indicating an increased vulnerability to
use and abuse.
With help from Zachary Hurwitz, a graduate student at American University, Merluzzi’s latest
study examined how adolescent and adult rats differ in their response to the aversive effects of
MDPV “bath salts” as well as MDPV’s effect on core body temperature and brain monoamine
neurotransmitter levels. Their findings will be presented April 23, 2013 at 12:30 pm during the
Experimental Biology 2013 in Boston, MA.
Paralleling previous drug abuse literature, Merluzzi found that adolescents are less sensitive to
the aversive effects of MDPV. Additionally, while adults exhibit increased body temperature
following MDPV administration, adolescents exhibit a decrease. Further, neurotransmitter levels
of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin are lower in adolescents. These data indicate that
there are true behavioral, physiological and neurochemical differences between adolescents and
adults in response to MDPV, possibly making adolescents more vulnerable to its use and abuse.
To request an interview with Mr. Merluzzi, please contact Jim Bernstein at the contact
information listed above.
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About Experimental Biology 2013
Experimental Biology’s mission is to share the newest scientific concepts and research findings
shaping future and current clinical advances – and to give scientists and clinicians an
unparalleled opportunity to hear from colleagues working on similar biomedical problems using
different disciplines. With six sponsoring societies and another 20 U.S. and international guest
societies, the annual meeting brings together scientists from throughout the United States and the
world, representing dozens of scientific areas, from laboratory to translational to clinical
research. The meeting also offers a wide spectrum of professional development sessions.
About the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
ASPET is a 5,100 member scientific society whose members conduct basic and clinical
pharmacological research within the academic, industrial and government sectors. Our members
discover and develop new medicines and therapeutic agents that fight existing and emerging
diseases, as well as increase our knowledge regarding how therapeutics affects humans.