Cathinones Abuse Networks: A New Frontier for Global Impact by Scientific Production Analysis

Background: Cathinones abuse, not only acting as physical killer, but also psycho poisoner, leads to worldwide health problems, letting alone impact caused by emerging novel psychoactive substances for illegal addictive consumptions at issue. As for the secrecy of drug manufacture, delivery and abuse, none of the database could be indicators to overview the consequences. Methods: To fill this gap, we used Citespace to indirect visualize and analyze the trends and patterns with 979 scientific literature. Findings: The synthetic designer cathinones renewed popularity in developed countries since 2011, especially in Europe and US, instead of natural producer Yemen; and this trend accord with the researchers and institutions' focus transition and articles output, keeping record-breaking. The whole topic bursts indicate the new widespread abused drug impact even more fiercely and overwhelmingly and the findings suggest that the cathinones abuse have become a huge global concern. Based on the various dimensions of witness over decades following the impredicative abuse hotspots, we propose new scientometric patterns for new typed stimulants and strategies for such surges' collection by dating from academy to socialization. This bibliometric analytical strategy can also be useful to study other illegal and non-public trafficking, such as drug or smuggled goods. Funding Statement: The project was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81501632). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics waived by the Animal Care and Protection Committee of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.