ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2012
Benzodiazepines and alcohol are associated with cases of fatal buprenorphine poisoning.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Interpreting Fentanyl and Norfentanyl Concentrations among Patients Seen in the Emergency Department after a Nonfatal Opioid Overdose: A Multicenter Study.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2026Article
- Fatalities in opioid agonist treatment with long-acting injectable buprenorphine.International journal of legal medicine · 2025Article
- Buprenorphine deaths confirmed by toxicology reveal a low proportion of opioid agonist treatment before death in Finland.International journal of legal medicine · 2024Article
- Brain PET imaging usingJournal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2024Article
- EPD1504: a novel μ-opioid receptor partial agonist attenuates obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-like behaviors.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Characterization of Unintentional Deaths Among Buprenorphine Users.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2023Article
- Investigation of buprenorphine-related deaths using urinary metabolite concentrations.Drug testing and analysis · 2022Article
- Oxycodone-Related Deaths: The Significance of Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Drug Interactions.European journal of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics · 2022Article
- A Novel Maintenance Therapeutic for Opioid Use Disorder.The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2021Article
- Association Between Benzodiazepine or Z-Drug Prescriptions and Drug-Related Poisonings Among Patients Receiving Buprenorphine Maintenance: A Case-Crossover Analysis.The American journal of psychiatry · 2021Article
- In a Rat Model of Opioid Maintenance, the G Protein-Biased Mu Opioid Receptor Agonist TRV130 Decreases Relapse to Oxycodone Seeking and Taking and Prevents Oxycodone-Induced Brain Hypoxia.Biological psychiatry · 2020Article
- Associations between prescribed benzodiazepines, overdose death and buprenorphine discontinuation among people receiving buprenorphine.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Article
- Pharmacologic Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: a Review of Pharmacotherapy, Adjuncts, and Toxicity.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2018Review
- Concomitant use of buprenorphine for medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder and benzodiazepines: Using the prescription behavior surveillance system.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Article
- Alcohol and Opioid Use, Co-Use, and Chronic Pain in the Context of the Opioid Epidemic: A Critical Review.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2018Review
- Postmortem Toxicology of New Synthetic Opioids.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2018Review
- Buprenorphine and pain treatment in pediatric patients: an update.Journal of pain research · 2018Article
- High enhancer, downer, withdrawal helper: Multifunctional nonmedical benzodiazepine use among young adult opioid users in New York City.The International journal on drug policy · 2017Article
- A behavioral typology of opioid overdose risk behaviors among recent veterans in New York City.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough buprenorphine therapy has proved to be successful in opioid maintenance treatments, the drug is also widely abused in many countries by intravenous injection or sniffing ("snorting"). In Finland, buprenorphine is the most important abused opioid causing fatal poisonings. PURPOSE: To evaluate the drug and alcohol findings as well as the cause and manner of death in all buprenorphine-related post-mortem cases for the age group 14-44 years in Finland from 2000 to 2008.
methodThis was a retrospective analysis of data on opioid-associated deaths in the Finnish comprehensive postmortem toxicology database based on medico-legal autopsies, case background information and laboratory analyses.
resultsBuprenorphine was found in 29% of all 1,363 opioid-positive cases, and buprenorphine poisoning was the cause of death in 182 cases out of 391 buprenorphine-positive cases (47%). In these fatal poisonings, the blood buprenorphine/norbuprenorphine concentration ratio was significantly higher than in cases with other causes of death. The manner of death in buprenorphine poisonings that were almost exclusively accidental differed significantly from other buprenorphine-related cases, which also involved diseases and suicides. Death was immediate in 10% of fatal buprenorphine poisonings, was delayed, during sleep, in 52%, and followed an unknown course of events in 38%. In immediate poisonings, the median blood buprenorphine concentration (3.0 μg/l) was significantly higher than that in delayed poisonings (1.2 μg/l). In most buprenorphine poisonings (92%), no opioids other than buprenorphine were involved, but benzodiazepines and alcohol were found in 82 and 58% of cases, respectively. The median concentrations of opioids and benzodiazepines in buprenorphine poisonings were in the therapeutic range. Only one fatal poisoning was found in which neither alcohol nor drugs other than buprenorphine were found.
conclusionA fatal buprenorphine poisoning is typically accidental, and the average victim is a 27-year-old male addict. Circumstantial and environmental factors seem to be crucial in determining the outcome of the poisoning.
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