Benzodiazepine Prescribing and Withdrawal for 3234 Patients in 15 General Practices

Benzodiazepines are still widely prescribed in general practice,despite repeated warnings about the problems associated withtheir use. Other studies have shown that a variety of interventionscan reduce prescribing, but these have been restricted to relativelyfew general practices or patients. We co-ordinated an auditof benzodiazepine prescribing and withdrawal in 15 practicescaring for 87 900 patients across a district. In total 3234patients (37 per 1000 registered patients) were discovered tobe taking the drugs at the start of the programme, and 16% ofthese people stopped taking the drugs by the conclusion of theaudit 8 months later. There was no relation between successat benzodiazepine cessation and initial levels of prescribing,nor with practice size. Younger patients were significantlymore likely to stop benzodiazepines than those over the ageof 65.