@article{ref1,
title="Benzodiazepine abuse among athletes: pain relief or just a weapon against insomnia? A clinical case study",
journal="Scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sports",
year="2019",
author="Zamboni, Lorenzo and Lugoboni, Fabio and Zandonai, Thomas",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="It is widely recognised that benzodiazepine abuse can potentially induce addiction. Benzodiazepine addiction among athletes is a new and growing phenomenon that we are encountering among our patients. We describe a case of lormetazepam addiction in a female competitive marathon runner. A 30-year-old female elite athlete developed lormetazepam addiction after increasing her daily benzodiazepine dosage in an attempt to achieve better sleep and enhanced performances during training. She was hospitalised for 7 days to undergo benzodiazepine detoxification. Her lormetazepam daily dosage on admission was 18 vials (20 ml x 18 = 360 ml). This report highlights the risk of athletes becoming addicted to benzodiazepines used to combat insomnia and pain. There is a need for clinical and epidemiological research to investigate the effects of this addiction, with a view to better protecting the health of athletes.<br><br>This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0905-7188",
doi="10.1111/sms.13540",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sms.13540"
}