[Diagnostic of pharmacodependence: comparison between patients and doctors approaches. Introduction]

The aim of our study is to evaluate the extent of agreement between pharmacodependence to benzodiazepines, as diagnosed by doctors and as self evaluated by patients, using DSM-IV dependence criteria. Method. This is a prospective study.

prescription of a benzodiazepines or related substances.

doctor questionnaire and patient questionnaire filled anonymously and independently. Main judgment criterion: rate of agreement between doctor diagnosis (is this patient dependent?), and patient evaluation (dependence is positive if at least 3 of the DSM-IV items are met). Results. One hundred and twenty-eight patients were included by 11 doctors: 89 (69.5%) cases of agreement between doctor diagnosis and patient self evaluation and 39 (30.5%) cases of disagreement Discussion. There is an over assessment of dependence: doctors diagnose a dependence in 72% of the disagreement cases although there is none according to the self evaluation; the over assessment shows how difficult it is to evaluate dependence in general practice medicine.