25b-NBOMe: A Case Report of Sudden Death and Insightful View of Google Trends Data

A 17-year-old healthy male died after ingesting three sublingual tablets of the hallucinogen 25b-NBOMe. The cause of death was cardiac arrest due to cardiac arrhythmia. Postmortem heart blood contained 3.14 ng/mL of 25b-NBOMe. The authors conclude that such deaths may result from an idiosyncratic reaction or from unknown contaminants in designer drugs. This case is among the few documented deaths from the 25b variant and is the first to correlate with Google trends data.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Introduction: The phenethylamine derivative 25b-NBOMe is a potent hallucinogen and a serotoninergic agonist. Other forms of NBOMe also exist, including 25c-NBOMe and the more powerful 25i-NBOMe. 25b-NBOMe has been incriminated with cases of intoxication among teenagers and adults worldwide. Case Presentation: This manuscript is an analytic storytelling of a tragic case of death induced by the 25b-NBOMe substance abuse by a 17-year-old male who was completely healthy and a charismatic high school student. Recreationally, the patient had ingested three sublingual tablets of 25b-NBOMe. Unfortunately, this psychedelic trip has put an end to his life. The reason for death was reported to be cardiac arrest, because of the cardiac arrhythmia. The concentration of 25b-NBOMe detected in postmortem heart blood was 3.14 ng/mL. Conclusions: This case represents one of the very few documented cases in the literature, which ended in death from the 25b variant. It is to be concluded that these death incidents can be attributed either to an idiosyncratic reaction or to the presence of an unknown mixture of different ingredients and contaminants in these designer drugs. This case report is the first in published literature to be also correlated with data from Google trends databases.