• Bernardo Dell'Osso, Umberto Albert, Anna Rita Atti, Claudia Carmassi, Giuseppe Carrà, Fiammetta Cosci, Valeria Del Vecchio, Marco Di Nicola, Silvia Ferrari, Arianna Goracci, Felice Iasevoli, Mario Luciano, Giovanni Martinotti, Maria Giulia Nanni, Alessandra Nivoli, Federica Pinna, Nicola Poloni, Maurizio Pompili, Gaia Sampogna, Ilaria Tarricone, Sarah Tosato, Umberto Volpe, and Andrea Fiorillo.
• Department of Psychiatry, University of Milan, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy ; Bipolar Disorders Clinic, Stanford Medical School, Stanford University, CA, USA.
• Neuropsych Dis Treat. 2015 Jan 1;11:1885-909.

AbstractMore than half a century after their discovery, benzodiazepines (BDZs) still represent one of the largest and most widely prescribed groups of psychotropic compounds, not only in clinical psychiatry but also in the entire medical field. Over the last two decades, however, there has been an increased focus on the development of antidepressants and antipsychotics on the part of the pharmaceutical industry, clinicians, and researchers, with a reduced interest in BDZs, in spite of their widespread clinical use. As a consequence, many psychiatric residents, medical students, nurses, and other mental health professionals might receive poor academic teaching and training regarding these agents, and have the false impression that BDZs represent an outdated chapter in clinical psychopharmacology. However, recent advances in the field, including findings concerning epidemiology, addiction risk, and drug interactions, as well as the introduction of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition with related diagnostic changes, strongly encourage an updated appraisal of the use of BDZs in clinical practice. During a recent thematic event convened with the aim of approaching this topic in a critical manner, a group of young Italian psychiatrists attempted to highlight possible flaws in current teaching pathways, identify the main clinical pros and cons regarding current use of BDZs in clinical practice, and provide an updated overview of their use across specific clinical areas and patient populations. The main results are presented and discussed in this review.

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