A prevalence survey answers who reported use, rather than how impaired users were.
What the paper found
A population survey in São Paulo interviewed more than two thousand residents and estimated recent psychotropic use. Tranquilizers, including multiple benzodiazepines, were among the commonly reported classes; use varied with demographic and clinical factors.
What the evidence cannot establish
Medication categories and recall windows differ from laboratory-confirmed exposure. A cross-sectional interview cannot establish ingestion at a specific event or determine whether treatment was appropriate.
Implications for forensic review
Use the reported category and time period precisely. Do not equate monthly tranquilizer use with misuse, dependence or impairment. For an individual, the prescription, dose history and contemporaneous observations provide a different kind of evidence than a population prevalence estimate.
Source and related reading
Source: PMC4529275, supplied full-text paper. Findings are paraphrased; case-review implications are an interpretation.
Related: Benzodiazepine Associations in an Overdose Survey Depended on the Time Window Studied.
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