• Intern Emerg Med · Oct 2020

    Multicenter Study

    Risk of hospitalisation associated with benzodiazepines and z-drugs in Italy: a nationwide multicentre study in emergency departments.

    • Niccolò Lombardi, Alessandra Bettiol, Giada Crescioli, Claudia Ravaldi, Roberto Bonaiuti, Mauro Venegoni, Giuseppe Danilo Vighi, Alessandro Mugelli, Guido Mannaioni, Alfredo Vannacci, and MEREAFaPS Study group.
    • Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health, Section of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Florence, Viale G. Pieraccini, 6, 50139, Florence, Italy.
    • Intern Emerg Med. 2020 Oct 1; 15 (7): 1291-1302.

    AbstractBenzodiazepines (BZD) and z-drugs (ZD) are a widely prescribed group of medicines. They are often used inappropriately, and this is associated with adverse events (AEs), which may cause emergency department (ED) visits. The present study aimed to describe the characteristics of BZD and ZD related AEs leading to emergency department (ED) visit and hospitalisation in Italy, considering their plasma half-life. Ninety-two Italian EDs were monitored between 2007 and 2018. Rates of ED visit and hospitalisation were calculated. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the reporting odds ratios (RORs) of hospitalisation. Univariate linear regression was performed to evaluate the ROR of hospitalisation according the plasma half-life of the suspected agents. A total of 3203 AE reports were collected. Overall, multivariate logistic regression showed that the risk of hospitalisation was higher for prazepam (3.26 [1.31-8.11]), flurazepam (1.62 [1.15-2.27]), and lorazepam (1.36 [1.15-1.61]). In the elderly, this risk was higher for prazepam (3.98 [1.03-15.3]), and lorazepam (1.58 [1.19-2.11]). Parenteral and rectal formulations were associated with a lower risk of hospitalisation compared to oral formulations. Our findings underlined the dangers in the use of BZD and ZD in Italy, particularly in women and older adults. ED clinicians must always take into account that the higher risk in terms of hospitalisation related to the use of BZD and ZD can be observed in patients treated with oral formulations, in those exposed to more than one sedative-hypnotics, and in patients exposed to compounds with intermediate or long plasma half-life.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…