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Concurrent Use of Benzodiazepine by Heroin Users—What Are the Prevalence and the Risks Associated with This Pattern of Use?

Overview of attention for article published in Journal of Medical Toxicology, July 2018
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (54th percentile)

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Title
Concurrent Use of Benzodiazepine by Heroin Users—What Are the Prevalence and the Risks Associated with This Pattern of Use?
Published in
Journal of Medical Toxicology, July 2018
DOI 10.1007/s13181-018-0674-4
Pubmed ID
Authors

T. Yamamoto, P. I. Dargan, A. Dines, C. Yates, F. Heyerdahl, K. E. Hovda, I. Giraudon, R. Sedefov, D. M. Wood, On behalf of the Euro-DEN Research Group

Abstract

Polydrug use involving heroin and benzodiazepines is common. The potential risk of additive pharmacological effects may be associated with poorer outcomes in patients who use benzodiazepines together with heroin. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical picture of patients presenting to the emergency department following acute drug toxicity involving heroin and benzodiazepines. Exposure information, clinical data and outcome of acute drug toxicity presentations were collected between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014 as part of the European Drug Emergencies Network (Euro-DEN) project. The database was interrogated to identify patients who had taken heroin with or without benzodiazepine(s). A total of 1345 presentations involving acute heroin toxicity were identified: 492 had used one or more non-heroin/benzodiazepine drug and were not further considered in this study; 662 were lone heroin users and 191 had co-used heroin with one or more benzodiazepines. Co-users were more likely than lone heroin users to have reduced respiratory rate at presentation 12.7 ± 4.9 vs 13.6 ± 4.4 (p = 0.02) and require admission to hospital 18.3 vs 9.8% (p < 0.01). There were no differences in critical care admission rates 3.1 vs 3.9% (p = 0.83) or length of stay 4 h 59 min vs 5 h 32 min (p = 0.23). The 3 most common benzodiazepines were clonazepam, diazepam, and alprazolam. No differences were observed for clinical features between the three benzodiazepines. This study shows that co-use of heroin and benzodiazepines is common, although the overall outcomes between co-users of heroin and benzodiazepines and heroin-only users were similar.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 51 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 51 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 8 16%
Other 5 10%
Student > Master 5 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 6%
Student > Postgraduate 3 6%
Other 7 14%
Unknown 20 39%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 13 25%
Nursing and Health Professions 4 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 4%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 4%
Chemistry 2 4%
Other 4 8%
Unknown 24 47%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 February 2020.
All research outputs
#6,467,470
of 23,098,660 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Medical Toxicology
#380
of 673 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#112,121
of 329,833 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Medical Toxicology
#5
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,098,660 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 673 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.6. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 329,833 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 65% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its contemporaries.