Long-term benzodiazepine users in family practice: differences from short-term users in mental health, coping behaviour and psychological characteristics.

Background: Contrary to short-term use, long-term benzodiazepine use is undesirable. Nevertheless, its prevalence is high. To prevent long-term use, it is important to know which short-term users are at risk of becoming long-term users.

Differences in health status between long-term and short-term benzodiazepine users.

Background: Despite generally accepted advice to keep treatment short, benzodiazepines are often prescibed for more than six months. Prevention of long-term benzodiazepine use could be facilitated by the utilisation of risk indicators for long-term use. However, the characteristics of long-term benzodiazepine users described in the literature are based on studies in which long-term users were compared with non-users.

Different study criteria affect the prevalence of benzodiazepine use.

Background: Different prevalences of benzodiazepine (BZ) use are described in the literature. The present study assessed the effects of employing various definitions of BZ use and various observation periods on the prevalence rate of BZ use in an open population aged 18-74 years.

Method: In a literature review, prevalence studies were systematically compared.