Observational studyInternal and emergency medicine2022
Phenobarbital use in benzodiazepine and z-drug detoxification: a single-centre 15-year observational retrospective study in clinical practice.
Observational study in Internal and emergency medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Joint Clinical Practice Guideline on Benzodiazepine Tapering: Considerations When Risks Outweigh Benefits.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Guideline
- Toward clarifying ASAM's inpatient and residential benzodiazepine tapering recommendations.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Real-world analysis on the use of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid for alcohol withdrawal syndrome in hospitalized patients with diagnosis of cirrhosis.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Observational
- Association Between Hypnotics and Dementia: A Mini Narrative Review.Psychiatry investigation · 2024Article
- Exposures and Suspected Intoxications to Pharmacological and Non-Pharmacological Agents in Children Aged 0-14 Years: Real-World Data from an Italian Reference Poison Control Centre.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology as a Guarantee of Patient Safety: The Role of the Clinical Pharmacologist.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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.
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