[Consumption of benzodiazepines in a university hospital center]

Benzodiazepine consumption has been studied in an inpatient population of a hospitalo-universitary center. The different user wards were classified by their cost or the importance of their benzodiazepine use. In a second step, the authors studied the prescription in the 6 most consumer medical wards. The most prescribed benzodiazepines were lorazepam and dipotassium clorazepate (27 and 23% respectively). In these six wards, on the day of the study, 48% of the 227 inpatients were taking benzodiazepines. Fourteen out of them were taking more than one of these drugs. In 80% of the cases, the patient was asking for the prescription. Out of the 110 inpatients found to have taken a benzodiazepine on the day of the study, 74 had already regularly used it during the years before hospital admission, mainly women (64%) and old people. Finally, out of the 227 inpatients studied, the hospitalization is a possible inducer of the benzodiazepine intake and dependence in 16% of the patients. The results are discussed against the background of other studies concerning benzodiazepine consumption.