Abstract

Background: Benzodiazepines are the most common prescribed drugs in psychiatric practice with the main indications being anxiety and substance withdrawal. There is a dearth of Indian data on prescription patterns of these drugs and there is also easy availability of this drug over the counter in India.

Aims and Objectives: The present study was designed to study the prescription pattern of benzodiazepines in the psychiatry unit of a tertiary general hospital.

Materials and Methods: Using convenience sampling, 300 patients on benzodiazepines were part of this survey and they filled up a semi-structured questionnaire designed for the study. The study involved psychiatric patients alone. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: A total of 180 patients were male and 120 were female. The mean age of the group was 36.33 ± 14.3 years with a range of 16–78 years. The mean duration of illness of the patients in the survey was 4.33 ± 4.1 years. The duration of benzodiazepine use in the sample was 1.49 ± 1.3 years (range 0–8 years) and maximum duration of abstinence was 2.17 ± 4.3 years (range 0–36 months). The reasons for prescribing benzodiazepines were anxiety (n = 139, 46.4%) which was the most common indication. 247 (82.7%) patients reported no side effects and the most common side effect reported was sedation (n = 26, 8.7%). Clonazepam and Lorazepam were the most commonly prescribed medications.

Conclusions: There is a need for data, which can help better policy, to regulate the prescription of benzodiazepines at all levels in hospital and clinical practice. Further studies in larger samples and multiple centers across the nation are needed to warrant our findings.

Key words: Benzodiazepines, Clinical practice, Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Prescription patterns