Study, Nov/17: Use of electronic clinical rule to discontinue benzos and Z-drugs

The full title of this Dutch study is "The use of an electronic clinical rule to discontinue chronically used benzodiazepines and related Z drugs".

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29127459 

Thanks for another post, Lapis! Seems like benzos/z drugs are hard to discontinue, but I don't understand what a clinical rule is?

Hi new0girl,

I'm not familiar with the term either, but from what I can tell, it seems that an alert was sent to a nursing home physician for patients who were on benzos or Z-drugs long-term. However, there's little info about how the people were told, supported or guided through the process of decreasing their medications. The results were apparently poor.

 

From what we all know here on BB, it takes a lot of information, support and guidance to get off a benzo after long-term use. If a proper plan is created, then the chance of success is likely better. I think this study shows a huge missed opportunity -- and for those who participated, possibly another discouragement. Will these people ever try again? Maybe not.

How very sad. It breaks my heart to think about those people. 

 

The persistence with which the medical community keeps getting benzos wrong is astonishing.

I find this very disturbing. It seems there's no awareness at all of what can happen to patients once they're tapered off or c/t'd off the benzos. You have elderly people who are already very fragile because of their age, and doing anything severe is going to have a chain reaction. It boggles my mind how ignorant the medical community still continues to be regarding benzos. I hope that I won't ever be put in a nursing home!

I'm with you there, Terry. I often think about that and just feel sad at how badly these fragile, elderly people are being treated.