Benzodiazepine prescription in relation to psychiatric diagnosis and patient characteristics: A pilot study

• Main Authors: Marić Nađa P., Janjatović Savo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Mental Health, Belgrade 2015-01-01
• Series: Psihijatrija Danas
• Subjects: benzodiazepine; diagnosis; indication; dose; rational therapy
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0350-2538/2015/0350-25381502151M.pdf
• ISSN: 0350-2538; 2560-3272

Introduction: Benzodiazepines are widely used drugs which are often misused. Analysis of psychotropic drugs prescription in Serbia showed high prescription rate of benzodiazepines in the psychiatric patient population, with an increasing trend. Potential association between psychiatric diagnostic categories (organic brain syndrome, psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, anxiety disorder, personality disorder), or the sociodemographic characteristics of patients (gender, age, education, marital state) and benzodiazepine prescribing practice was not thoroughly tested. Aim: By analyzing routine practice of the university clinic, the aim of this study was to examine whether there is an association between clinical or socio-demographic characteristics of the patients and benzodiazepine prescribing practice. Material and methods: This study was carried out by retrospective analysis of the patient's medical charts after hospital discharge (n=102). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, testing the difference between groups and correlation analysis. Results: At the discharge, 94.1% of patients had benzodiazepines prescribed, with an average dose of 4.6 ± 3.2mg lorazepam dose equivalents. It is shown that female patients were prescribed with higher doses of benzodiazepines than male patients (p=0.018), that the average dose was higher for patients treated with an overall larger number of psychiatric drugs (p = 0.013), as well as that hospital inpatients had higher doses compared to day hospital-treated patients (p = 0.011). Patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder had a slight upward trend of benzodiazepine dose (p=0.078). Conclusion: Current research provided a clear insight into the actual practice of benzodiazepine prescription at local university center. Similarly to our region, indications for prescribing benzodiazepines appear to be quite broad and not specific enough worldwide. This is why it is important to carefully reconsider benzodiazepine prescribing practices and to prevent potential consequences. Moreover, it is necessary to carry out a comparative analysis among similar institutions within the country and in the region.