Cargando…

Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 impacted through various ways the lives of millions of humans globally. In this work, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was applied to investigate the effect of the actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus to confine COVID-19 on the use of illicit stimulant drugs...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Psichoudaki, M., Mina, T., Savvidou, M., Mina, C., Michael, C., Fatta-Kassinos, D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9467927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36108831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158747
_version_ 1784788300146409472
author Psichoudaki, M.
Mina, T.
Savvidou, M.
Mina, C.
Michael, C.
Fatta-Kassinos, D.
author_facet Psichoudaki, M.
Mina, T.
Savvidou, M.
Mina, C.
Michael, C.
Fatta-Kassinos, D.
author_sort Psichoudaki, M.
collection PubMed
description The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 impacted through various ways the lives of millions of humans globally. In this work, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was applied to investigate the effect of the actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus to confine COVID-19 on the use of illicit stimulant drugs. Daily influent samples were collected from the six main wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of the country i) before lockdown (3–9 April 2019), ii) during lockdown (21–27 April 2020), iii) during the post-lockdown period (14–20 July 2020), and, iv) during each season of the following year (20–26 April 2021, 19–25 July 2021, 11–17 October 2021, 25 December 2021–2 January 2022), and analyzed for amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. In most areas, amphetamine and methamphetamine use was not affected during the confinement period, but as availability of the substances decreased with time, a drop in their use was observed when most restriction measures were eased (up to 9- and 22-fold decrease, respectively). The limitations on social interactions and events during the quarantine period seem to have led to the reduction of MDMA and cocaine and driven a sharp decrease of their use in most areas studied (up to 11 and 6 times lower, respectively). However, the re-opening of activities led to a pronounced consumption increase, reaching maximum daily values of 800 and 2691 mg/1000 inhabitants/day, respectively. In 2021, drug use was re-established to lower levels. The examination of weekly patterns during this year revealed higher weekend use of methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. Our results suggest that both the implementation and the easing of COVID-19 related measures affected the availability and the use of drugs. This study also provides the first insight on the consumption of illicit drugs in the Republic of Cyprus during pre-, post- and pandemic times and demonstrates the importance of WBE.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9467927
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Elsevier B.V.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-94679272022-09-13 Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic Psichoudaki, M. Mina, T. Savvidou, M. Mina, C. Michael, C. Fatta-Kassinos, D. Sci Total Environ Article The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 impacted through various ways the lives of millions of humans globally. In this work, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was applied to investigate the effect of the actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus to confine COVID-19 on the use of illicit stimulant drugs. Daily influent samples were collected from the six main wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of the country i) before lockdown (3–9 April 2019), ii) during lockdown (21–27 April 2020), iii) during the post-lockdown period (14–20 July 2020), and, iv) during each season of the following year (20–26 April 2021, 19–25 July 2021, 11–17 October 2021, 25 December 2021–2 January 2022), and analyzed for amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. In most areas, amphetamine and methamphetamine use was not affected during the confinement period, but as availability of the substances decreased with time, a drop in their use was observed when most restriction measures were eased (up to 9- and 22-fold decrease, respectively). The limitations on social interactions and events during the quarantine period seem to have led to the reduction of MDMA and cocaine and driven a sharp decrease of their use in most areas studied (up to 11 and 6 times lower, respectively). However, the re-opening of activities led to a pronounced consumption increase, reaching maximum daily values of 800 and 2691 mg/1000 inhabitants/day, respectively. In 2021, drug use was re-established to lower levels. The examination of weekly patterns during this year revealed higher weekend use of methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. Our results suggest that both the implementation and the easing of COVID-19 related measures affected the availability and the use of drugs. This study also provides the first insight on the consumption of illicit drugs in the Republic of Cyprus during pre-, post- and pandemic times and demonstrates the importance of WBE. Elsevier B.V. 2023-01-01 2022-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9467927/ /pubmed/36108831 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158747 Text en © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Psichoudaki, M.
Mina, T.
Savvidou, M.
Mina, C.
Michael, C.
Fatta-Kassinos, D.
Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in cyprus by uplc-ms/ms: the impact of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9467927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36108831
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158747
work_keys_str_mv AT psichoudakim wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic
AT minat wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic
AT savvidoum wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic
AT minac wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic
AT michaelc wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic
AT fattakassinosd wastewaterbasedmonitoringofillicitdrugsincyprusbyuplcmsmstheimpactofthecovid19pandemic