• Sara García Diez, Míriam De Nicolás Valdés, Cristina Diéguez Varela, Paula Fernández Martínez, Patricio Suárez Gil, and Yolanda Navarro Rodríguez.
• Centro de Salud Contrueces, Principado de Asturias, Gijón, España. Electronic address: sagadi91@gmail.com.
• Aten Primaria. 2023 Mar 1; 55 (3): 102552102552.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on the prescription of benzodiazepines by gender, age and district health departments.DesignLongitudinal observational study.LocationPrimary care. Asturias (Spain) health district V.ParticipantsPeople over 15 years of age with filled benzodiazepine prescriptions in between 2017 and 2020.Main MeasurementsBenzodiazepine DHD (defined daily dose per 1000 habitants) mean difference between the period defined as pre-lockdown and lockdown. Additionally, the difference was adjusted for gender, sex and district health department and also with the interaction among them.ResultsDHD mean pre-lockdown was 131.3 and 139.5 in the lockdown; this difference was significant in the global analysis (95% CI: 4.1-12.1). There was an increase in the DHD mean in the 60-74 age group (95% CI: 2.28-21.42), in the group over 90 years old (95% CI: 21.31-40.63) and in women (95% CI: 3.51-14.59). Finally, a decrease in the DHD mean of V11 (95% CI: -29 to -0.66) and V14 (95% CI: -54.28 to -25.04) district health departments was observed.ConclusionsCertain subgroups show a change in the pattern of benzodiazepine prescription without being able to relate this to the lockdown. We believe that there could be some inertia in the prescription of psychiatric medication according to the biopsychosocial characteristics of the patients; it is important to detect this in order to avoid the medicalization of psychological disorders.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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