The wastewater-based epidemiology approach, popular for estimating illicit drug use, has been used to evaluate lifestyle habits such as alcohol, tobacco and caffeine consumption, health biomarkers including pharmaceuticals, plasticizers and flame retardants, and recently to track SARS-CoV-2 at the population level. Equally, the number of WBE studies investigating psychoactive pharmaceuticals such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines has also increased, which can be connected to the overall growth of psychological disorders worldwide. This review aims to discuss novelties in sampling techniques and analytical methodologies, including sample preparation and analysis, developed for estimating the consumption of psychoactive pharmaceuticals in defined populations. Seventy-four peer-reviewed studies monitoring psychoactive pharmaceutical consumption published since 2010 have been systematically reviewed. Its findings show that a broad range of bioanalytical methodologies is used to simultaneously measure several antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and their metabolites from influent wastewater samples in low concentrations and different time periods. The application of WBE commenting on the temporal and spatial variations worldwide, showing widespread consumption, is also discussed. Despite much progress and excellent studies, there remains a need for research, and deeper knowledge is needed to reduce method uncertainty, especially since excretion rates, their transformation, and in-sewer and in-sample stability for many psychoactive pharmaceutical biomarkers are not available.

基于废水的流行病学方法在估计非法药物使用方面很受欢迎，已被用于评估生活习惯，如酒精、烟草和咖啡因消费，健康生物标志物，包括药物、增塑剂和阻燃剂，最近还用于追踪 SARS-CoV-2人口水平。同样，研究抗抑郁药、抗精神病药和苯二氮卓类药物等精神活性药物的 WBE 研究数量也有所增加，这可能与全球心理障碍的总体增长有关。本综述旨在讨论抽样技术和分析方法的新颖性，包括样品制备和分析，这些技术和分析是为估计特定人群中精神活性药物的消费而开发的。对自 2010 年以来发表的 74 项监测精神药物消费的同行评审研究进行了系统审查。其研究结果表明，广泛的生物分析方法被用于同时测量多种抗抑郁药、抗精神病药、苯二氮卓类药物及其在低浓度和不同时间段内流入废水样品中的代谢物。还讨论了 WBE 评论全球时间和空间变化的应用，显示了广泛的消费。尽管取得了很大进展和出色的研究，但仍然需要研究，并且需要更深入的知识来减少方法的不确定性，特别是因为许多精神活性药物生物标志物的排泄率、它们的转化以及下水道和样本内的稳定性尚不可用。