Overdose Deaths Involving Eutylone (Psychoactive Bath Salts) - United States, 2020 2020

Eutylone is a synthetic cathinone, which are also known as psychoactive bath salts. Cathinones are a class of central nervous stimulant drugs that can mimic the effects of cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA. The supply of eutylone increased from 2017 to 2021. In 2017, eutylone was identified in fewer than 10 drug samples obtained by law enforcement. In 2021, over 8,300 samples were identified as containing eutylone. 

In 2020, 343 eutylone-involved deaths were reported with most (75.5%) of the deaths being concentrated in Florida and Maryland. Fentanyl is commonly also involved in eutylone-involved deaths. Most of these deaths occurred among males, individuals ages 25 to 34 years old, and white non-Hispanic people. Evidence of MDMA use prior to death was relatively uncommon with fewer than 13% of decedents found to have current or past MDMA use, MDMA use prior to the overdose, or a history of chronic MDMA use. 

For prevention, it's important to know whether these exposures to eutylone are intentional or unintentional. "Risk for unintentional eutylone exposure might be mitigated by 1) increasing knowledge about synthetic cathinones, including eutylone, among persons using MDMA and other drugs with eutylone, 2) supporting rapid dissemination of results from enhanced toxicology testing of illicit drug products, including those sold as MDMA, and 3) broadly increasing availability and access to harm reduction strategies."