Home > Phenylalkylamine abuse among opiate addicts attending a methadone treatment programme in the Republic of Ireland.

Kavanagh, PV and Dunne, J and Feely, John and Maguire, Richard and Corrigan, Desmond and Keating, JJ and Meegan, MJ and Clancy, JM and Burdett, J (2001) Phenylalkylamine abuse among opiate addicts attending a methadone treatment programme in the Republic of Ireland. Addiction Biology, 6, (2), pp. 177-181.

Since the early 1990s ring-substituted derivatives of amphetamine have been abused widely in the Republic of Ireland. The main ring-substituted amphetamines being abused include methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methylenedioxyethamphetamine (MDEA). A newer illicit synthetic analogue, which has been seized to a lesser extent by Irish police, is N-methyl-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-butanamine (MBDB). The work presented here involved the determination of the type of ring-substituted amphetamines being abused by a group of recovering opiate abusers participating in a methadone maintenance programme in a Dublin Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Urine samples which tested positive for amphetamines and ring-substituted amphetamines via EMIT immunoassay were subjected to further analysis using GC-MS with MBTFA flash derivatization. It was found that the methylenedioxypropanamines were being abused, as was amphetamine itself. However, no abuse of methylenedioxybutanamines or thioamphetamines was observed.


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