Global change 71
Meet a man of substance
Fabrizio Schifano is a man on a mission. As early as the 1990s he recognised that information available on the Internet about illicit drugs was outstripping published clinical knowledge. Today he leads an innovative European Union (EU) initiative using technology to increase young people’s awareness of recreational drugs and reduce the health risks.
Professor Fabrizio Schifano studied at the University of Padua, qualifying in both psychiatry and clinical pharmacology. He spent several years as a consultant in the Italian health service before moving to the UK to lecture at St George’s, University of London. In 2006 he joined our University as Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics – a role he combines with part-time work as an addiction psychiatrist for the Hertfordshire NHS Trust.
His academic background together with a working knowledge of several European languages – his ‘peculiarities’ as he calls them – are a great advantage in his research, he says: ‘It’s quite unusual for physicians to train in both these disciplines but understanding the brain’s pathways is very useful when dealing with addiction. Collaborating on international projects is also easier when you can communicate with colleagues from different countries.’
Professor Schifano has added significantly both to the understanding of biomedical issues and the clinical science of addiction. He has over eighty research papers to his name, with topics ranging from the impact of stimulant synthetic drugs on mental health to mortality studies for a range of drugs, including ecstasy.
One area of research he considers particularly important is ‘legal high’ drugs which are becoming more prevalent. They are often not perceived as real drugs, but their hallucinogenic properties make them extremely harmful to mental health.
He says, ‘There’s a growing number of websites that make it easy to find out about and acquire these recreational drugs, in the form of stimulants, sedatives and psychedelics. Yet these drugs are largely unknown to health professionals and can remain unregulated for a long period of time.’
The problem was evident even in the early days of the Internet, he says: ‘Information about new compounds proliferates very quickly online, but it can take as long as two years to publish information in medical journals as it is a rigorous process.’
Professor Schifano has led three EU-funded projects looking at this issue. The first, in 2002, implemented a method of assessing the Web in relation to trafficking, consumption and synthesis of both licit and illicit compounds.
In 2008, the Psychonaut Web Mapping project developed a multilingual web scanning system to identify and categorise novel compounds/combinations. Over four hundred psychoactive substances have now been identified, and technical data on thirty submitted to the Psychonaut/ReDNet database.
Picture description
Clinicians are able to access the information via the project database, including topics such as the treatment and management of the date rape drug GBL/GHB and the first comprehensive review of mephedrone including mortality rates.
On the back of this success, the Recreational Drugs European Network (ReDNet) was launched at our School of Pharmacy in 2010 funded by the EU’s Public Health Programme. Supported by the Philosophy Department, UH Second Life and other research bodies, the team is working towards the first effective Information Communication Technology (ICT) prevention programme for recreational drugs in Europe.
Among the tools currently being piloted are SMS alert, social networking (Facebook and Twitter) multimedia (YouTube), smartphone applications (iPhone) and virtual worlds (Second Life). Also underway is the development of an online learning module to help psychiatrists managing or treating the misuse of ‘legal highs’.
Professor Schifano says, ‘Raising awareness of these compounds among health professionals has the potential to improve clinical knowledge and therefore diagnostics and treatment. We also want to provide young people with appropriate drug information and treatment services in a technological
medium they are familiar with.
‘Ultimately, we hope this approach will have a positive effect – reducing harm to individuals and preventing deaths, while saving costs within the NHS and the rest of Europe.’
As drug abuse is a real social concern and never far from the headlines, Professor Schifano’s expertise is in great demand. He is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and has acted as an advisor to the UK, Italian and other European governments on preventative measures in relation to substance misuse.
He is a member of the Specialist Advisory Group (Psychiatry) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and speaks on legal highs and research chemicals for the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Most recently, he was appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72