Needle spiking, het drogeren met een injectienaald

Background

In the Netherlands there were several reports on needle spiking: people have found themselves subjected to surreptitious injections.

Case description

A 23-year-old female was seen after being surrounded by a group of men and felt what she thought was a jab. She was able to evade the group. Several minutes later she experienced dizziness, nausea and vomiting. On physical examination, a bleeding puncture wound was seen on her upper arm with accompanying erythema. Toxicology on blood and urine did not show evidence for intoxication other than alcohol which was higher than would be suspected by the number of drinks the victim reported.

Conclusion

There is evidence that people are punctured with needles in busy surroundings like the nightlife. Possible also drugs are injected. Experienced symptoms by victims (n=19) were heterogeneous and not likely attributed to one and the same causal drug. Toxicology did not reveal any substance until now.

Conflict of interest and financial support: ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.