Use of novel psychoactive substances by inpatients on general adult psychiatric wards

Objectives: Non-illicit alternatives to controlled drugs, known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) have recently risen to prominence. They are readily available with uncertain pharmacology and no widely available assay. Given that psychiatric patients are at risk of comorbid substance abuse, we hypothesized that NPS use would be present in the psychiatric population, and sought to determine its prevalence and investigate the characteristics of those who use these drugs with a retrospective review of discharge letters. Setting: General adult inpatient wards of a psychiatric hospital in a Scottish city. Participants: All adult inpatients (18-65) discharged from general psychiatric wards between 1/7/14 and 31/12/14. 483 admissions identified, 46 were admissions for maintenance ECT and were excluded. Of the remaining 437 admissions, 49 discharge letters were unobtainable, leaving 388 admissions to analyze. Primary outcome measure: The mention or lack thereof of NPS use in discharge...