title: Monitoring of benzodiazepine diversion using a multi-indicator approach.
abstract: Fourteen benzodiazepine (BZD) or BZD-like medications were analyzed with three data sources aiming to assess prescription drug abuse for the year 2008. After a descriptive analysis, a principal component analysis was carried out to explore correlations between seven indicators obtained by different methods using these three different data sources and to compute a composite score of diversion for these drugs. For all the indicators, flunitrazepam appears first with much higher values than the other drugs, whereas clonazepam appears in the second or third place. These methods produce globally correlated indicators and the composite score obtained from principal component analysis ranks the drugs with the highest diversion as follows: flunitrazepam, clonazepam, oxazepam, diazepam, and bromazepam. This study shows that these methods yield consistent results. Their integration into a single multi-indicator approach gives health authorities a global view of different behaviors regarding diversion of a given drug.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Santé Publique, Centre d'Evaluation et d'Information sur la Pharmacodépendance (CEIP), Centre Associé, Faculté de médecine EA 3279, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pauly
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frauger
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pradel
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nordmann
authors.forename: Laure
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pourcel
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Natali
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sciortino
authors.forename: Maryse
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lapeyre-Mestre
authors.forename: Joelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Micallef
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Thirion
mesh_terms: D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002998:Clonazepam / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000639:trends; D003975:Diazepam / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005445:Flunitrazepam / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs; D001569:Benzodiazepines; D002998:Clonazepam; D005445:Flunitrazepam; D003975:Diazepam