[Psychiatric and addictologic complications of new synthetic products].

Psychiatric and addictologic complications of new synthetic products. New synthetic products (NSP) have completely changed the current scene of addictions. Also known as designer drugs, legal highs, herbal highs, bath salts, plant fertilizers, incense, research chemicals, they have made their emergence on the drug market in the late 1990s. Legal or herbal highs consist of uncontrolled psychoactive substances, obtained by chemical synthesis or derived from plants. Essentially produced in China and India, but also in Europe, their diffusion brings new communication technologies, fixes the offer and directs the users' demand on this specific market. They are mostly sold over the Internet and are generally a "legal" pseudo- alternative to controlled and regulated psychoactive products. They are consumed because of their effects mimicking those of an illicit substance such as cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cannabis, opioids for example. NSP induce numerous psychiatric, somatic, addictologic and social complications.