Citation

Van Sassenbroeck DK, Calle PA, Rousseau FM, Verstraete AG, Belpaire FM, Monsieurs KG, Haentjens R, Allonsius J, Van Brantegem J, Haenen W, Buylaert WA. Eur. J. Emerg. Med. 2003; 10(4): 302-308.

Affiliation

Heymans Institute for Pharmacology, University of Ghent, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent, Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/01.mej.0000104020.33339.52

PMID

14676509

Abstract

During 'I love techno' (edition 2001), an indoor rave party attended by 37 000 people, data about medical problems (especially drug-related problems) were collected. To place these data in a wider perspective, a similar registration was done during 'De Nacht', a traditional New Year's Eve dance party held at the same location and attended by 12 000 people. Furthermore, a prospective study on the time course of the level of consciousness (Glasgow Coma Score) and blood concentrations of illicit drugs, especially gamma-hydroxybutyrate was set up.The results revealed that during 'I love techno' the incidence of medical problems was high (66.5/10 000 attendees), but not higher than during 'De Nacht' (70.0/10 000 attendees). At 'I love techno', however, mainly illicit drugs were used, more frequently leading to severe drug-related medical problems.The observations in patients with a drug-related medical problem who had taken gamma-hydroxybutyrate showed that for a given level of consciousness the gamma-hydroxybutyrate concentrations may show important differences, that the transition from coma (Glasgow Coma Score < or =7) to full recovery (Glasgow Coma Score 15) takes only 30-60 min (and only a small decrease in gamma-hydroxybutyrate concentrations), and that the time it takes before a comatose patient reaches the above-mentioned 'transition area' may be a few hours.

Language: en