Letters
Misuse of dothiepin
EDITOR,--Recently we have become aware of a considerable population of intravenous drug misusers in the Greater Dublin area who are misusing the tricyclic antidepressant dothiepin (Prothiaden). The Drug Treatment Centre, Dublin, runs an evening programme of low dose methadone maintenance and harm reduction with needle exchange and health promotion advice but without urine testing. A self report questionnaire administered at this programme showed that 46% of clients (38/83) had misused this drug orally in the previous six months. Of all urine samples tested on 14 March of clients attending the centre by day who were not taking prescribed tricyclicor neuroleptic agents, 19% (19/99)were positive for tricyclics. The Emit tox test (Syva, San Jose, CA) was originally designed for serum samples, and the presence of phenothiazines is a known cause of false positive results. We conclude that this percentage is an indication of misuse of tricyclic drugs in those tested.
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