[Misuse of psychotropic medications in a population of subjects held for custody in the city of Paris].
OBJECTIVE
Identify which psychotropic medications are misused and peddled in a population of subjects held for custody in the city of Paris.


METHODS
Subjects held for custody in the Medico-Legal Emergency Unit of the Paris Hôtel-Dieu hospital were examined and interrogated between March 2006 and March 2007 in order to assess their consumption of psychotropic medications.


RESULTS
Sixty one of the 659 subjects (9.2%) interrogated were included in the study. Their main source of psychotropic medications was street dealers. The most frequently misused psychotropic agent was clonazepam (42.6%), followed by buprenorphine (30.65%) and methadone (21.3%). Clonazepam appears to have replaced flunitrazepam which now only comes in fifth position (11.4%). The finding that methadone is the third most misused drug should lead us to query this medication's dispensing method.


CONCLUSIONS
Practitioners should remain vigilant regarding the potential misuse of psychotropic medications, particularly since they may induce severe undesirable events (addiction, neurological disorders, possibly lethal overdosage).
Sec
Isabelle
I
Urgences Médico-Judiciaires, Hôtel-Dieu, Faculté Paris Descartes, Université Paris V, Paris, France. isabelle.sec@htd.aphp.fr
Questel
Frank
F
Rey
Caroline
C
Pourriat
Jean-Louis
JL
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010297:Paris / Q000453:epidemiology; D011329:Prisoners; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs