Benzodiazepine prescribing and withdrawal for 3234 patients in 15 general practices.

Benzodiazepines are still widely prescribed in general practice, despite repeated warnings about the problems associated with their use. Other studies have shown that a variety of interventions can reduce prescribing, but these have been restricted to relatively few general practices or patients. We co-ordinated an audit of benzodiazepine prescribing and withdrawal in 15 practices caring for 87,900 patients across a district. In total 3234 patients (37 per 1000 registered patients) were discovered to be taking the drugs at the start of the programme, and 16% of these people stopped taking the drugs by the conclusion of the audit 8 months later. There was no relation between success at benzodiazepine cessation and initial levels of prescribing, nor with practice size. Younger patients were significantly more likely to stop benzodiazepines than those over the age of 65.