Audit and follow-up of chronic benzodiazepine tranquillizer use in one general practice

A search of the records of one general practice, serving 5282 patients, generated a list of 72 patients (1.36%) who had been using a benzodiazepine tranquillizer continuously for more than 6 months. These patients were interviewed and asked to discontinue the use of these drugs with the help of their general practitioner. An individual approach for each patient was agreed between the general practitioner and the patient. Patients who initially did not agree to try to stop the drug were included in the study. After 1 year, 27 (37.5%) of the patients had stopped using the benzodiazepine completely and 24 (33.3%) had reduced their previous consumption by more than 50%. This outcome was independent of sex, age, drug used, duration of use, whether they were exceeding the original dose of the drug and attendance at a consultant psychiatric clinic. It was significantly more likely that the patient would stop taking the drug if they originally wished to do so, but several of those who initially did not want to try to stop were able to do this. The excess number of consultations for the patients in the study for the year of the study compared with the year before the study only constituted 0.35% of the total number of consultations in the practice. The results were better than expected and the exercise was felt to be worthwhile, particularly as the increase in workload was very small.