Systematic postmarketing surveillance needed for misused psychoactive pharmaceutical drugs

Moylan, Steven

doi:10.5694/mja13.10482

Topics

To the Editor: Rintoul and colleagues showed that alprazolam is being increasingly detected in heroin-related deaths.1 One explanation provided is increased rates of alprazolam misuse among people who inject drugs.

School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC.

Correspondence: steven.moylan@deakin.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Rintoul AC, Dobbin MDH, Nielsen S, et al. Recent increase in detection of alprazolam in Victorian heroin-related deaths. Med J Aust 2013; 198: 206-209. <MJA full text>
2. Moylan S, Giorlando F, Nordfjaern T, Berk M. The role of alprazolam for the treatment of panic disorder in Australia. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2012; 46: 212-224.
3. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia) in adults. NICE clinical guideline 113. London: NICE, 2011.
4. Best D, Wilson A, Reed M, et al. Alprazolam and wider benzodiazepine misuse in Australia — sources of supply and evidence of harms. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2013; 47: 94-95.
5. Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria. Warning: alprazolam (Xanax, Kalma, Zamhexsal). Bulletin 2009; (Jun): 11.
6. Galloway J. Newsletter number 42. Information circular for pharmacists in Tasmania. New restrictions on the prescribing of alprazolam. Hobart: Department of Health and Human Services, 2007.

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