Approach to Classifying 'Design' Drugs and New Potentially Dangerous Chemical Substances, with a Brief Review of the Problem

The urgency of this study has become vivid in the light of the growing problem of prevalence and use of new synthetic drug types. Lately there has been a tendency of expanding the range of psychologically active substances (PAS) used by addicts with the purpose of their illegal taking. The aim of this research is an attempt of systematizing and classifying "design" drugs according to their chemical structure, neurochemical mechanisms of action and clinical manifestations. As a result, we have found that they can be divided into ten big groups. This classification will allow to better arrange new clinical phenomenology in modern addictology. This paper would be useful for psychiatrists, experts in narcology, as well as for personnel of institutions and agencies engaged in anti-drug activity.