Methylphenidate disintegration from oral formulations for intravenous use by experienced substance users.

• Published in: Drug and Alcohol Dependence
• Main Authors: Bjarnadottir, G D, Johannsson, M, Magnusson, A, Rafnar, B O, Sigurdsson, E, Steingrimsson, S, Asgrimsson, V, Snorradottir, I, Bragadottir, H, Haraldsson, H M
• Other Authors: 1 Mental Health Services, Landspitali - The National University Hospital, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland; Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. Electronic address: [e-mail]. 2 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology,University of Iceland, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland. 3 Department of Psychiatry, Akureyri Hospital, 600 Akureyri, Iceland. 4 Mental Health Services, Landspitali - The National University Hospital, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland; Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. 5 Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM), Sahlgrenska Academy, The University of Gothenburg, 41677 Gothenburg, Sweden; Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland. 6 Mental Health Services, Landspitali - The National University Hospital, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ireland 2017
• Subjects: Geðlyf; Lyfjamisnotkun; Fíkniefnaneytendur; PSY12; Methylphenidate; Injections; Intravenous; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/620312; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.04.028

To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink below Methylphenidate (MPH) is a prescription stimulant used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. MPH is currently the preferred substance among most intravenous (i.v.) substance users in Iceland. Four types of MPH preparations were available in Iceland at the time of study: Immediate-release (IR), sustained-release (SR), osmotic controlled-release oral delivery (OROS) tablet and osmotic-controlled release (OCR). MPH OROS has previously been rated the least desirable by i.v. users and we hypothesized that this was associated with difficulty of disintegrating MPH from OROS formulation. The aim of the study was to measure the amount of MPH and the viscosity of the disintegrated solutions that were made from the four MPH formulations by four i.v.-users and non-users. A convenience sample of four i.v. substance users and 12 non-users. Non-users imitated the methods applied by experienced i.v. substance users for disintegrated MPH formulations. Both groups managed to disintegrate over 50% of MPH from IR and SR formulations but only 20% from OROS (p<0.0001). The viscosity of the disintegrated MPH was significantly higher for MPH OROS and MPH OCR and the preparation was significantly more time-consuming than for the other MPH samples. No differences were observed between users and non-users. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation of viscosity and the amount of disintegrated MPH from prescription drugs for i.v. use. The results indicate that the ease of disintegration, amount of MPH and viscosity may explain the difference in popularity for i.v. use between different MPH formulations.