Magnesium as supplemental treatment for opioid or benzodiazepine abuse or addiction

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SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut202508 Registration no: SBU 2025/366

Question

What are the effects of magnesium as a supplemental treatment for opioid or benzodiazepine abuse or addiction?

PICO

Population: Persons with opioid or benzodiazepine abuse or addiciton
Intervention: Magnesium as supplemental treatement
Comparison: Treatment as usual
Outcome: Relapse, abstinence


Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline, Scopus, and Embase.

Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.
Risk of bias in relevant systematic reviews was assessed using an assessment tool based on AMSTAR.

Identified literature

No relevant studies were identified.

Literature search

Medline via OvidSP 8 April 2025
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp = Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1.       exp Substance-Related Disorders/ 326 265
2.       exp Analgesics, Opioid/ 143 926
3.        exp Opiate Alkaloids/ 97 429
4.       exp Benzodiazepines/ 71 650
5.       exp Narcotics/ 152 214
6.   (addict* or ((substance or drug* or opioid* or opiate* or benzodiazepine* or Benzomorphans or Buprenorphine or Butorphanol or Dextromethorphan or Dextrorphan or Diprenorphine or Etorphine or Levallorphan or Levorphanol or Morphine or Nalbuphine or Nalorphine or Naloxone or Pentazocine or Phenazocine or Codeine or Hydrocodone or Oxycodone or Dihydromorphine or Ethylmorphine or Heroin or Hydromorphone or Oxymorphone or Thebaine or Naltrexone or tramadol or methadone or petidine or Fentanyl or ketobemidone or opium or Alprazolam or Benzodiazepinones or Bromazepam or Clonazepam or Devazepide or Diazepam or Flumazenil or Flunitrazepam or Flurazepam or Lorazepam or Nitrazepam or Oxazepam or Pirenzepine or Prazepam or Temazepam or Chlordiazepoxide or Clobazam or Clorazepate or Estazolam or Medazepam or Midazolam or Olanzapine or Triazolam) adj4 (abuse or 'use' or misuse or disorder* or dependen* or recover* or withdrawal*))).ab,kf,ti,bt. 380 934
Intervention:
7.      exp magnesium/ or exp magnesium compounds/ 75 701
8.    magnesium*.ti,ab,kf,bt. 87 981
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
9.     ((Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/)) 532 286
Combined sets:
10.  1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 OR 5 OR 6 741 202
11.  7 OR 8 128 454
12.  9 AND 10 AND 11 78
Final result
13. 12 78

 

Scopus via scopus.com 8 april 2025
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1.  TITLE-ABS-KEY((addict* or ((substance or drug* or opioid* or opiate* or benzodiazepine* or Benzomorphans OR Buprenorphine OR Butorphanol OR Dextromethorphan OR Dextrorphan OR Diprenorphine OR Etorphine OR Levallorphan OR Levorphanol OR Morphine OR Nalbuphine OR Nalorphine OR Naloxone OR Pentazocine OR Phenazocine OR Codeine OR Hydrocodone OR Oxycodone OR Dihydromorphine OR Ethylmorphine OR Heroin OR Hydromorphone OR Oxymorphone OR Thebaine OR Naltrexone OR tramadol OR methadone OR petidine OR Fentanyl OR ketobemidone OR opium or Alprazolam OR Benzodiazepinones OR Bromazepam OR Clonazepam OR Devazepide OR Diazepam OR Flumazenil OR Flunitrazepam OR Flurazepam OR Lorazepam OR Nitrazepam OR Oxazepam OR Pirenzepine OR Prazepam OR Temazepam OR Chlordiazepoxide OR Clobazam OR Clorazepate OR Dipotassium OR Estazolam OR Medazepam OR Midazolam OR Olanzapine OR Triazolam) W/3 (abuse or 'use' or misuse or disorder* or dependen* or recover* or withdrawal*)))) 965 098
Intervention:
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( magnesium* ) 456 076
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials
3. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic  W/2  review )  OR  "meta analy*"  OR  metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”))   798 002
Combined sets:
4. 1 AND 2 5512
5. 3 AND 4 356
Final result
6.   356

 

Embase via Elsevier 11 April 2025
/de = Term from the EMTREE controlled vocabulary; /exp = Term from the EMTREE controlled vocabulary, including all narrower terms in the hierarchy; ti = Title; ab = Abstract; kw = Author keywords; it = Publication type; NEAR/n = Near. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; * = Truncation; ‘ ‘ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. 'drug dependence'/exp OR 'opioid-related disorder'/exp OR 'opiate'/exp OR 'benzodiazepine'/exp OR 'stimulant-related disorder'/exp OR 'benzodiazepine derivative'/exp OR 'narcotic agent'/exp OR 'morphine derivative'/exp OR 'opiate agonist'/exp 1 099 275
2. addict*:ti,ab,kw OR (((substance OR drug* OR opioid* OR opiate* OR benzodiazepine* OR benzomorphans OR buprenorphine OR butorphanol OR dextromethorphan OR dextrorphan OR diprenorphine OR etorphine OR levallorphan OR levorphanol OR morphine OR nalbuphine OR nalorphine OR naloxone OR pentazocine OR phenazocine OR codeine OR hydrocodone OR oxycodone OR dihydromorphine OR ethylmorphine OR heroin OR hydromorphone OR oxymorphone OR thebaine OR naltrexone OR tramadol OR methadone OR petidine OR fentanyl OR ketobemidone OR opium OR alprazolam OR benzodiazepinones OR bromazepam OR clonazepam OR devazepide OR diazepam OR flumazenil OR flunitrazepam OR flurazepam OR lorazepam OR nitrazepam OR oxazepam OR pirenzepine OR prazepam OR temazepam OR chlordiazepoxide OR clobazam OR clorazepate OR estazolam OR medazepam OR midazolam OR olanzapine OR triazolam) NEAR/3 (abuse OR 'use' OR misuse OR disorder* OR dependen* OR recover* OR withdrawal*)):ti,ab,kw) 496 042
Intervention:
3. 'magnesium sulfate'/exp OR 'magnesium'/exp OR magnesium:ti,ab,kw 169 354
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials
4.  ('systematic review'/de OR 'meta analysis'/de OR [cochrane review]/lim OR (((systematic NEAR/4 review) OR 'meta analys*' OR metaanalys*):ti,ab)) NOT ('case report'/de OR 'editorial'/it OR 'letter'/it OR 'note'/it)) 777 901
Combined sets:
5. 1 OR 2 1 378 611
6. 3 AND 5 9512
7.  4 AND 6 531
Final result
8.   531

Citation Search

Scopus via Elsevier (citation search) 11 April 2025
LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, "j" = Limit to source type journal LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar" = Limit to document type article LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "re" = Limit to document type review LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, X = Limit to publication year
Search terms Items found
Cited articles
1.    REF ( 2-s2.0-85043995053 ) 10
2.      REF ( 2-s2.0-85089798301 ) 38
3.      TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic  W/2  review )  OR  "meta analy*"  OR  metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”))   798 002
4.    1 OR 2 48
5.   3 AND 4 7
Citing articles
6.   #1 View cited by 7
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