title: [Misuse of psychotropic medications in a population of subjects held for custody in the city of Paris].
abstract: 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).
authors: Urgences Médico-Judiciaires, Hôtel-Dieu, Faculté Paris Descartes, Université Paris V, Paris, France. isabelle.sec@htd.aphp.fr
authors: Isabelle
authors: I
authors: Sec
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Questel
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Rey
authors: Jean-Louis
authors: JL
authors: Pourriat
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs