BENZODIAZEPINES POISONING AND HYPOGLYCEMIA, ITSPREVALENCE AND POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS

Background and Aim : Benzodiazepine (BZD) toxicity is a common medical condition oftenaccompanied by respiratory arrest, aspiration pneumonitis, and may rarely result in death.Although it is not studied well, hypoglycemia is a real and life threatening condition that mayoccur in BZD toxicity. Thus, the present study was conducted to evaluate prevalence ofhypoglycemia in patients with BZD poisoning compared to toxicity with other drugs.Methods : In this cross-sectional study, patients with drug -induced poisoning referred to VaseiEducational, Research and Treatment Center, Sabzevar, Iran were enrolled and their blood glucoselevel at presentation were collected prospectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS software 10 usingChi Square and Fisher Exact tests at level of p≤0.05.Results : A total of 300 poisoned patients were evaluated (17% with BZD poisoning). Prevalenceof hypoglycemia was significantly higher in patients with BZD poisoning (11.8% vs. 2.8%,p=0.004), especially in male (P=0.016), aged > 30 years old (p=0.006). Although, prevalence ofhypoglycemia was higher in patients with GCS<10 (p=0.005) and patients referred later than 1hour to medical facility (p=0.015).Conclusion : Results showed that hypoglycemia is a frequent side effect of BZD toxicity andshould be addressed in initial evaluation of patients referred to emergency department with thismedical condition.

Keywords:

Benzodiazepine , Poisoning , Hypoglycemia