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High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam

Introduction: The use of novel designer drugs has increased worldwide over the years. Etizolam is a designer benzodiazepine (BZD) that has raised concern because of its growing non-medical use, liability to tolerance and dependence, and related harms. Studies exploring the abuse liability and cognit...

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Autores principales: Tamburin, Stefano, Mantovani, Elisa, Bertoldi, Anna, Federico, Angela, Casari, Rebecca, Lugoboni, Fabio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7671959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329156
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.601827
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author Tamburin, Stefano
Mantovani, Elisa
Bertoldi, Anna
Federico, Angela
Casari, Rebecca
Lugoboni, Fabio
author_facet Tamburin, Stefano
Mantovani, Elisa
Bertoldi, Anna
Federico, Angela
Casari, Rebecca
Lugoboni, Fabio
author_sort Tamburin, Stefano
collection PubMed
description Introduction: The use of novel designer drugs has increased worldwide over the years. Etizolam is a designer benzodiazepine (BZD) that has raised concern because of its growing non-medical use, liability to tolerance and dependence, and related harms. Studies exploring the abuse liability and cognitive effects of etizolam outside the therapeutic doses are lacking. Aims: To explore the abuse liability of etizolam and the characteristics of patients affected by etizolam high-dose dependence in a nationwide tertiary referral addiction unit. To document the cognitive changes to etizolam high-dose use. Design and Methods: Sociodemographic and clinical data on subjects with etizolam high-dose use were retrospectively collected from a database of 1,293 patients consecutively admitted to the Addiction Medicine Unit, Verona University Hospital, Italy for detoxification from high-dose BZDs or Z-drugs dependence. Thorough neuropsychological testing explored the cognitive side effects of high-dose etizolam use. Results: We found eleven etizolam high-dose users, of which eight used etizolam only, and three used etizolam with other BZDs/zolpidem. All the patients were prescribed etizolam for medical reasons, i.e., anxiety and/or insomnia. Neuropsychological evaluation showed deficits of working memory, visuospatial memory and executive function in a 27-year-old woman who used etizolam 15 mg daily. Discussion: Our findings suggest that abuse and dependence liability of etizolam should be considered a public health and social problem. They offer preliminary evidence on the cognitive side effects of etizolam high-dose use. Conclusions: This report offers new information on the potential harms of etizolam in patients who are prescribed this drug for medical reasons.
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spelling pubmed-76719592020-12-15 High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam Tamburin, Stefano Mantovani, Elisa Bertoldi, Anna Federico, Angela Casari, Rebecca Lugoboni, Fabio Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Introduction: The use of novel designer drugs has increased worldwide over the years. Etizolam is a designer benzodiazepine (BZD) that has raised concern because of its growing non-medical use, liability to tolerance and dependence, and related harms. Studies exploring the abuse liability and cognitive effects of etizolam outside the therapeutic doses are lacking. Aims: To explore the abuse liability of etizolam and the characteristics of patients affected by etizolam high-dose dependence in a nationwide tertiary referral addiction unit. To document the cognitive changes to etizolam high-dose use. Design and Methods: Sociodemographic and clinical data on subjects with etizolam high-dose use were retrospectively collected from a database of 1,293 patients consecutively admitted to the Addiction Medicine Unit, Verona University Hospital, Italy for detoxification from high-dose BZDs or Z-drugs dependence. Thorough neuropsychological testing explored the cognitive side effects of high-dose etizolam use. Results: We found eleven etizolam high-dose users, of which eight used etizolam only, and three used etizolam with other BZDs/zolpidem. All the patients were prescribed etizolam for medical reasons, i.e., anxiety and/or insomnia. Neuropsychological evaluation showed deficits of working memory, visuospatial memory and executive function in a 27-year-old woman who used etizolam 15 mg daily. Discussion: Our findings suggest that abuse and dependence liability of etizolam should be considered a public health and social problem. They offer preliminary evidence on the cognitive side effects of etizolam high-dose use. Conclusions: This report offers new information on the potential harms of etizolam in patients who are prescribed this drug for medical reasons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7671959/ /pubmed/33329156 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.601827 Text en Copyright © 2020 Tamburin, Mantovani, Bertoldi, Federico, Casari and Lugoboni. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Tamburin, Stefano
Mantovani, Elisa
Bertoldi, Anna
Federico, Angela
Casari, Rebecca
Lugoboni, Fabio
High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title_full High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title_fullStr High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title_full_unstemmed High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title_short High-Dose Dependence and Cognitive Side Effects to Medical Prescription of Etizolam
title_sort high-dose dependence and cognitive side effects to medical prescription of etizolam
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7671959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329156
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.601827
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