Designer Benzodiazepines Gidazepam and Desalkygidazepam (Bromonordiazepam): What Do We Know?

Designer benzodiazepines are one of the primary new psychoactive substance (NPS) threats around the world, being found in large numbers in postmortem, driving under the influence of drugs and drug-facilitated sexual assault cases. Even though when compared to many other NPS types, such as opioids and cathinones, there are relatively few designer benzodiazepines being monitored. Recently, a new NPS benzodiazepine has been reported in Europe, the USA and Canada, desalkygidazepam, also known as bromonordiazepam. This substance is a metabolite of the prodrug gidazepam, a drug licensed for use in Ukraine and Russia under the name Gidazepam IC®. In the paper, we review what is currently known about the use, pharmacology and analytical detection of gidazepam, its metabolite desalkygidazepam and their other possible metabolites.