Cathinones & Vasospasms?

[GenesisMN]

Pretty new to posting on here so if this is in the wrong forum I apologize in advance.

Anyways, I had a few theories that they developed about the health effects of the ultra potent cathinones over the year and a half that I took mephedrone religiously and also numerous other cathinones in large amounts such as Methylone and 3-FMC. Before I began my bout with with these barely researched substances, I decided that I'd try my best to pay attention to the short term health effects, tolerance curve, and interactions with known substances, etc. Soon into my (ab)use, I saw major health effects beginning to show their ugly faces and with increased frequency as time went on. Temporary numbness in limbs, that tingly feeling caused by lack of blood flow to a specific area, started to become more and more noticeable and more and more uncomfortable. My fine motor coordination became horribly rigid in nature for a period of time which I think was caused by massive vasoconstriction taking place along with super low dopamine levels.

The most startling thing that developed, though, was what I merely hypothesize were vasospasms. The only way I can really describe one is as such: first, something seemlingy surprising or anxiety invoking happens. In response to this, rather than a heart dropping sensation which one recovers from and feels relieved, I would experience what felt like my heart skipping a beat and a sensation all over my body as if I'd been slighty electrically shocked but only for a split second. At first this occurred once in a while but as my doses got larger it's frequency drastically increased, mainly happening when not on anything. Even weirder so, once I'd get one spasm, it would always be followed with a few more until it waned off. Since I've stopped taking cathinones every damn day, they have literally cleared up. But when I do ingest a cathinone, it will come back again for maybe a day or two for a single use or if I sesh out it can return for almost a week before fading.

My question to you guys is, has anyone experienced similar effects and if so, am I using/what is the correct terminology for what I'm referring to? Are they any other health effects you've felt from cathinones that you feel are as heavily undocumented/talked about as I do about my reported effects?

 

[sekio]

Palpitations, vasospasm, vasoconstriction/numbness/tingling in the extremities, purple bruising, erratic heart rate, etc. are all normal side effects of abusing cathinones, esp. at high doses. I think they are related to excessive monoamine levels & the ephedrine/hydroxy metabolites of cathinones causing excessive peripheral effects.

There has been lots of discussion in Other Drugs/Psychedelic Drugs about mephedrone side effects.

 

[GenesisMN]

Oh, that is a pretty dead on list of every short term side effect I ever had from cathinones, I must say. Also, it sounds like you have a much more educated hypothesis as to why this occurs.

Do you know if the same effects would occur if one were using amphetamine in a manner such as mephedrone due to the same reasons regarding their metabolites? Or is that a cathinone specific thing? I've had some very similar side effects to that of a one night meph binge from a few two day sessions of meth in the past few months, but as it would seem, meth has fewer immediately noticeable side effects. I suppose that I never ever treat meth like I used to treat meph, taking .1 lines every 45-minutes to an hour and such, as I feel it would be a huge waste because of it's potency.

 

[sekio]

Metabolism to ephedrines is pretty much exclusive to cathinones, it happens when the double bond on the oxygen next to the phenyl ring is reduced in the liver. It happens to all cathinones, increasing affinity for the 'dirty' adrenergic receptors, decreasing the amount acting centrally & increasing peripheral action, and likely increasing the affinity for norepinephrine release over dopamine. I am unsure if cathinones go to pseudo-ephedrine or normal ephedrine or both, but both compounds are much less active than cathinone.

Methylone and other methylenedioxycathinones are also very likely ring-opened to hydroxymethyl-hydroxy-cathinone/ephedrine & dihydroxycathinone/ephedrine.

Another series of metabolites involve oxidisation of 4-methyl and 4-ethyl substituents to alcohols & carboxylates. This decreases BBB permeability in the same manner that newer antihistamines are designed, by adding charged groups, and makes peripheral effects like vasoconstriction and the like more prevalent.

From what I remember, substituted ephedrines are mild MAOIs too.

The side effects are likely caused by excessive monoamine release on the 'other side' of the blood brain barrier causing runaway peripheral stimulation and can show up if you abuse excessive amounts of (usually racemic) amphetamines, ( esp. laevoamphetamine, ephedrine, rac-methylphenidate too). More 'central' stimulants like dextroamphetamine, dexmethylphenidate, D-methamphetamine are generally less prone to side effects due to their more central nature. AMphetamines that have a hydrogen at the 4-position are also p-hydroxylated in the liver (decreasing central electivity) but I am unsure if this is of the same magnitude that the cathinones have.

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