La percezione della Qualità di Vita valuta tata in una coorte di abusatori primari di benzodiazepine e in una coorte di tossicodipendenti in trattamento metadonico di mantenimento.

Benzodiazepines (BZD) are among the most widely prescribed drugs in developed countries. The first reports of dependence related to these drugs appeared in the early 60s, nevertheless the risk of addiction is still largely underestimated by clinicians and official bodies. The prevalence of long-term use in the general population varies from 2 to 7%, approximately, with estimates for long-term use among BDZ users ranging from 25% to 75% . Chronic users of BDZ can developed deficits in working memory, learning, attention. Depression, injurious falls (especially in elderly people), traffic accidents are other common complications related to chronic use of BZD. Present paper evaluates the Quality of Life, by using GHQ-12 questionnaire, in 2 groups: 35 high dose benzodiazepines mono-dependents (without history of alcoholism, illicit drugs use or psychiatric illness) and 40 heroine dependents in methadone maintenance treatment. So far, this is first study that evaluated the quality of life in mono-dependent benzodiazepine abusers.