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Senior Health

IQ -- Too Much Valium?

Editorial Staff

Moderating Benzodiazepine Use in the Elderly published in the October, 1992 issue of the Canadian Family Physician had this to say about the amount of "sedative-hypnotic medications" taken:

In 1988, residents of Quebec aged 65 years and older received 2.7 million prescriptions for sedative-hypnotic medications. These prescriptions cost more than $25 million to fill and represented almost 10% of all medications prescribed to this group and paid for by the provincial health insurance plan.1 Out of an approximate population of 600,000 aged 65 years and older in Quebec, the average number of prescriptions per year per elderly person is 4.5.2 This high rate of benzodiazepine use is not unique to Quebec. A review of the literature reveals concern about this phenomenon in other parts of Canada,3,4 the United States,5 Britain6 and Europe.7 The World Health Organization has identified excessive benzodiazepine use as a global problem.8
Most would agree that the abuse of prescription drugs has long been a problem, particularly in the Western world. It is encouraging to see the scientific community and the World Health Organization (WHO) focus on this issue.

References

  1. Regie de l'assurance-maladie du Quebec. Regie de l assurance-maladie: statistiques annuelles 1988.

     

  2. Statistics Canada. Recensement 1986. Ottawa, Ont: Statistics Canada; 1986: Catalogue No. 92-113.

     

  3. Sketris IS, MacCara ME, Purkis IE, Curry LZ: Is there a problem with benzodiazepine prescribing in Maritime Canada? Can Fam Physician 1985;31:1591-6.

     

  4. Busto U, Lanctot KL, Isaac P, Adrian M: Benzodiazepine use and abuse in Canada. Can Med Assoc J 1989;141:917-21.

     

  5. Laux G, Puryear DA: Benzodiazepines-misuse, abuse and dependency. Am Fam Physician 1984;3:139-47.

     

  6. Tyrer P: Risks of dependence on benzodiazepine drugs: the importance of patient selection. BMJ 1989;298:102-5.

     

  7. Balter MB, Levine J, Manheimer DI: Cross-national study of the extent of anti-anxiety sedative drug use. N Engl J Med 1974;290:769-74.

     

  8. Ghodse H, Khan I, editors: Psychoactive drugs: improving prescribing practices. Geneva, Switz: World Health Organization, 1988.
April 1993
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