Prescribed psychotropic medications contribute to overdose mortality among people with alcohol and other drug (AOD) disorders. We report on prescribed psychotropic medication use among AOD treatment service attendees, focusing on sedative drugs.
Prospective multi-site naturalistic outcome study in residential and outpatient AOD treatment facilities in Victoria and Western Australia. A convenience sample of 480 people (57% male; mean age 36.1) entering treatment were surveyed, of whom 313 (65%) were followed up by telephone interview after a median of 377 days. Participants' prescribed psychotropic medication use was ascertained by self-report at baseline and follow-up.
At baseline, 41% of participants reported prescribed sedative medication (benzodiazepine, zopiclone or zolpidem) use within the past month, including prescriptions to treat withdrawal symptoms. At follow-up, the cohort reported a reduced rate of past month prescribed sedative use (23%; P < 0.001) and this rate did not significantly differ between those who continued to use their primary drug of concern and those who were abstinent at follow-up (P = 0.08). Among those with opioids as their primary drug of concern, one-third were still being prescribed a sedative at follow-up (P > 0.99 for change from baseline). At baseline, 40% of participants were prescribed an antidepressant and 13% an antipsychotic medication, which remained similar at follow-up (45% and 13%, respectively).
The high level of prescribed sedative drug use reported by people receiving AOD treatment is a serious public health concern given the increasing incidence of drug overdose deaths in Australia.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
2
5%
Other
6
15%
Unknown
13
33%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. 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 18 August 2019.
All research outputs
#7,291,485
of 34,376,207 outputs
Outputs from Drug & Alcohol Review
#1,058
of 2,588 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#98,290
of 370,927 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Drug & Alcohol Review
#12
of 25 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,376,207 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 78th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,588 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 25 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 52% of its contemporaries.
