The effect of minimal interventions by general practitioners on long-term benzodiazepine use

Seventy one long-term users of benzodiazepines were asked by their general practitioners in a letter or short interview to reduce their medication. Twenty two patients were successful in giving up or reducing their consumption to less than 100 tablets per annum. There were no clear predictors of success in terms of patient characteristics, duration of drug use, type of benzodiazepine, reason for drug use or strategy employed to reduce medication. However, patients who were successful at reducing their medication had a significantly lower mean baseline drug consumption than unsuccessful patients. The implications of this study are that a proportion of long-term users who are not in current crisis, especially those with relatively low consumption, can reduce or stop benzodiazepine treatment with minimal difficulty.