Work accident effect on the use of psychotropic drugs: the case of benzodiazepines

Thomas Barnay () and François-Olivier Baudot

Health Economics Review, 2023, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Background A work accident constitutes a shock to health, likely to alter mental states and affect the use of psychotropic drugs. We focus on the use of benzodiazepines, which are a class of drugs commonly used to treat anxiety and insomnia. Prolonged use can lead to dependence. Our objective is to determine the extent to which work accidents lead to benzodiazepine use and overuse (i.e. exceedance of medical guidelines). Method We use a two-step selection model (the Heckman method) based on data from the French National Health Data System (Système National des Données de Santé, SNDS). Our study sample includes all general plan members who experienced a single work accident in 2016 (and not since 2007). This sample includes 350,000 individuals in the work accident group and more than 1.1 million people randomly drawn from the population without work accidents from 2007 to 2017 (the non-work accident group). Results The occurrence of a work accident leads to an increase in benzodiazepine use and overuse the following year. The selection model shows a clear influence of the accident on the use probability (+ 39%), but a very slight impact on the risk of overuse among users (+ 1.7%), once considered the selection effect. The effect on overuse risk is higher for more severe accidents and among women. Conclusion The increase in the risk of benzodiazepine overuse is due to an increase in the likelihood of using benzodiazepines after a work accident that leads to overuse, rather than an increase in likelihood of overuse among people who use benzodiazepines. Results call for targeting the first-time prescription to limit the risk of overuse after a work accident.

Keywords: Work; Accident; Occupational accident; Drug; Benzodiazepine; Overuse; Overconsumption; SNDS; France (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-023-00464-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:13:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-023-00464-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/13561

DOI: 10.1186/s13561-023-00464-5

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics Review is currently edited by J. Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg

More articles in Health Economics Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().