Phenobarbital use in benzodiazepine and z-drug detoxification: a single-centre 15-year observational retrospective study in clinical practice

Given the increase in benzodiazepine (BZD) and Z-drug (ZD) use disorder, this study described the use of phenobarbital (PHB) as detoxification in clinical practice. A 15-year observational retrospective study was performed on medical records of BZD-ZD use disorder patients detoxified with PHB at the Toxicology Unit and Poison Centre, Careggi University Hospital, Florence (Italy). A multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate odd ratios (ORs) and related 95% confidence intervals (CI) of “treatment failure” considering demographic and pharmacological characteristics. “Hospitalisation length”, “PHB discharge dose”, and “BZD-ZD free status” at discharge were also calculated. During detoxification, out of 355 patients (57% of men), with a mean age of 42.92 years, only 20 (5.6%) treatment failures were recorded: 19 were discharged against medical advice or due to misbehaviour, and only one for PHB-related non-serious skin rash. Analysis showed a higher probability to be BZD-ZD free at discharge for subjects who reported to be employed (OR 2.29; CI 95% 1.00–5.24), for those who abused oral drops of BZD-ZD (OR 2.16, CI 1.30–3.59), and for those treated with trazodone (OR 2.86, CI 1.14–7.17) during hospital stay. A hospitalisation length of > 7 days was observed for patients with opioid maintenance therapy (OR 2.07, CI 1.20–3.58) for substance use disorder, and for those treated with more than 300 mg/day of PHB equivalents at hospital admission (OR 1.68, CI 1.03–2.72). Our results suggested that PHB can be considered a valuable detoxification option for different types of BZD and ZD use disorder patients.