Addiction to benzodiazepines--how common?

Benzodiazepines have compiled an impressive record of safety and efficacy. Despite this record, however, physicians and laypersons frequently worry about the drugs' addictive potential. Overemphasizing these concerns may discourage prescription of benzodiazepines, thereby impeding treatment of anxiety disorders. This review first defines the term addiction. It then examines how frequently conditions meeting that definition occur in patients without histories of substance abuse, who are prescribed benzodiazepines under medical supervision. In such patients, benzodiazepines almost never induce behavior that satisfies any reasonable definition of addiction.