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Fatal Poisonings Attributed to Benzodiazepines in Britain during the 1980s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Marc Serfaty  and
George Masterton
Marc Serfaty
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NEI 4LP
George Masterton*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 4 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9 YW
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The fatal toxicity indices of benzodiazepines during the 1980s were calculated from national prescribing data and mortality statistics. The overall rate was 5.9 deaths per million prescriptions for benzodiazepines taken alone or with alcohol only, anxiolytics being less toxic than hypnotics. Diazepam appeared more toxic than average among anxiolytics (P<0.05), and flurazepam and temazepam more toxic than average among hypnotics (both P<0.001). It was shown that the finding for diazepam was probably explained by concurrent use of alcohol, which implies that other anxiolytics may be safer in cases where there is alcohol misuse; but the greater toxicity of flurazepam and temazepam remained unexplained. Benzodiazepines are indeed much less toxic than the barbiturates they superseded, but they are not innocuous and temazepam in particular requires further evaluation.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 386 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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