Alice in wonderland - Assessment of a case of oneyear self reported abuse of mephedrone and other Novel Psychoactive Substances

The use of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) is nowadays a global phenomenon, clinically relevant due to their uncertain and untoward psychopathological effects. Mephedrone is the most known synthetic cathinone, consumed as a stimulant and as an alternative to other illicit compounds: in Italy few cases of abuse have been described, even if this substance is well present in national soil. This report describes the assessment of a woman who arrived in our Dual Diagnosis Unit (Parco dei Tigli, Padova) for a severe dependence of “classic” drugs (cocaine and alcohol) but also revealed an intense abuse of mephedrone for an entire year, with the experimentation of several different NPS. “Alice” followed the entire program in our Unit, receiving detoxification and psychotherapy and she was also profiled with Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), in order to understand and describe psychopathological features in a mephedrone user.