-
- Jonathan Brett and Bridin Murnion.
- Clinical Pharmacology and Addiction Medicine, Drug Health Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
- Aust Prescr. 2015 Oct 1; 38 (5): 152-5.
AbstractThere are well-recognised harms from long-term use of benzodiazepines. These include dependency, cognitive decline and falls. It is important to prevent and recognise benzodiazepine dependence. A thorough risk assessment guides optimal management and the necessity for referral. The management of dependence involves either gradual benzodiazepine withdrawal or maintenance treatment. Prescribing interventions, substitution, psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies can all contribute. Unless the patient is elderly, it is helpful to switch to a long-acting benzodiazepine in both withdrawal and maintenance therapy. The dose should be gradually reduced over weeks to lower the risk of seizures. Harms from drugs such as zopiclone and zolpidem are less well characterised. Dependence is managed in the same manner as benzodiazepine dependence.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..