An unusual benzodiazepine dependence in an opioid dependent patient: a case report

Sulagna Saha; Prabin Kumar Sahu; Biswajeet Samal; Samuel L. Singson; Th. Bihari Singh

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Case Report

| Published: March 23, 2021

An unusual benzodiazepine dependence in an opioid dependent patient: a case report

Sulagna Saha

Postgraduate Trainee, Dept of Psychiatry, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India Google Scholar More about the auther

, Prabin Kumar Sahu

Postgraduate Trainee, Dept of Psychiatry, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India Google Scholar More about the auther

, Biswajeet Samal

Postgraduate Trainee, Dept of Psychiatry, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India Google Scholar More about the auther

, Samuel L. Singson

Postgraduate Trainee, Dept of Psychiatry, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India Google Scholar More about the auther

, Th. Bihari Singh

Professor, Dept of Psychiatry, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India Google Scholar More about the auther

DIP: 18.01.098/20210901

DOI: 10.25215/0901.098

ABSTRACT

Treatment of polysubstance abuse involving heroin and benzodiazepines is a challenge in clinical practice. The potential risk of additive pharmacological effects may be associated with poorer outcomes in patients who use benzodiazepines together with heroin. The index case had presented with multiple episodes of seizure with the average use of 250 mg of diazepam per day over past 1year. The patient also has dependence of heroin taking around 2 grams per day since last 12 yrs with multiple admissions in rehabilitation centres. Patient was previously tried with Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) multiple times with unsuccessful attempts. Finally, as patient was unmanageable on OST due to severe withdrawal features, he was started on Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT).

Keywords

Dependence, Benzodiazepines, Opioids, OST, MMT

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This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite this article: Saha S., Sahu P. K., Samal B., Singson S. L.& Singh B. (2021). An unusual benzodiazepine dependence in an opioid dependent patient: a case report. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 9(1), 924-927. DIP:18.01.098/20210901, DOI:10.25215/0901.098