Article printed in "OF SUBSTANCE".
"View from the coal face" … in Redfern, inner Sydney.
Commentary on Addiction editorial on benzodiazepine maintenance.
After many years of wrestling with the problem of benzodiazepine use in opioid dependency patients it was reassuring to read the prominent paper by Liebrenz and colleagues. Their hypothesis is an approach using what appear to be harm reduction principles, parallel to methadone maintenance. Our original practice policy was to ‘just say no’ but despite our entreaties, about one third of our patients continued to use benzodiazepines on urine testing. A number did succeed at abstinence, only to relapse with significant harms occurring due to disinhibited behaviour, often involving amnesia for the events.
Some patients were able to function almost normally while taking illicit benzodiazepines. Others became disorganised regarding their finances, housing and interpersonal relationships, some even coming to the attention of the police or emergency departments.
Although there appeared to be a number of patters of tranquillizer use, from binge and recreational use to quasi-therapeutic, we treated all such patients the same way initially, using diazepam 5mg tablets supervised at the clinic. Those currently abusing alcohol were excluded. Each patient needed to return at least once, about 3 hours after a witnessed dose for a brief examination to confirm their tolerance and exclude intoxication. All patients also had to agree to random urine testing and regular medical consultations to assess progress.
Our impression has been that when given access to diazepam under close supervision, stability returned to most such patients. A recent audit of our referral dependency practice showed that of 167 pharmacotherapy patients, (80% methadone, 20% buprenorphine) 30% were being prescribed benzodiazepines, mostly under supervision at the practice. The mean dose was 14mg daily (range 2mg - 25mg). One third were gainfully employed.
Thus we can confirm that some of the protocols alluded to in the forward thinking item in Addiction are feasible and are ripe for research. Enquiries showed that many of our colleagues had one or two pharmacotherapy patients taking long-term benzodiazepines and nearly all had organised supervised dosing at least once.
Benzodiazepine use has been the ‘elephant in the room’ in addiction treatment. While many centres still use an abstinence approach, many patients continue to use these drugs. Since benzodiazepines, along with alcohol, constitute a major source of drug-related harm it may be timely to reassess our approach. Severe restrictions on supply alone have historically never solved drug problems. Such restrictions also necessarily reduce access to those who need the drugs therapeutically. As with many other areas of public health, we believe that it is possible to translate the principles of ‘harm reduction’ to benzodiazepine use by utilizing the protocols of ‘universal precautions’ espoused by Dr Gourlay in Canada.
The use of benzodiazepine maintenance is probably at the same stage of ‘evidence’ as methadone treatment was in about 1980. It appears to be acceptable to the patient population; it appears to be safe in practice, yet definitive research is awaited to prove its effects … and to identify optimal dosing, supports and necessary supervision. Likewise oral morphine, injectable methadone and heroin assisted treatments are being trialled in several countries currently. Thus in our own patient group we found that supervised, low dose diazepam was worth offering to those who were unable or unwilling to give up benzodiazepines.
References:
Liebrenz M, Boesch L, Stohler R, Caflisch C. Agonist substitution-a treatment alternative for high-dose benzodiazepine-dependent patients? Addiction 2010 105;11:1870–1874
Gourlay DL, Heit HA, Almahrezi A. Universal precautions in pain medicine: a rational approach to the treatment of chronic pain. Pain Med (2005) 6;2:107-112
Darke S, Ross J, Mills K, Teesson M, Williamson A, Harvard A. Benzodiazepine use among heroin users: Baseline use, current use and clinical outcome. D&A Review 2010 29:3:250-255
Byrne A. Benzodiazepines: the end of a dream. Aust Fam Physician 1994 23;8:1584-1585
See article summary by Libby Topp http://www.ofsubstance.org.au/images/archive/pdf/ofsubstance_2010_3.pdf
