BACKGROUND High-dose benzodiazepine dependence constitutes a major clinical concern. Although withdrawal treatment is recommended, it is unsuccessful for a significant proportion of affected patients. More recently, a benzodiazepine maintenance approach has been suggested as an alternative for patients' failing discontinuation treatment. While there is some data supporting its effectiveness, pa...

BACKGROUND As benzodiazepines (BZDs) have anxiolytic effects, it is expected that they influence the stress system. During short-term treatment, BZD use was found to suppress cortisol levels. However, little research has been done on the effects of long-term BZD administration on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. METHODS The association between long-term BZD use and cortisol leve...

BACKGROUND There is evidence that the use of any psychotropic and the concomitant use of two or more benzodiazepines are related to an increased risk of fractures in old age. However, also controversial results exist. The aim was to describe associations between the use of a psychotropic drug, or the concomitant use of two or more of these drugs and the risk of fractures in a population aged 65...

BACKGROUND Insomnia is a common comorbidity associated with COPD. Although benzodiazepines (BZDs) can have adverse effects on respiratory response in COPD patients, these are the most common hypnotics. The aim of this study was to examine by meta-analysis the efficacy and safety of BZD to treat insomnia in COPD patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Electronic databases (PubMed, China National Knowl...

BACKGROUND Despite guidelines and campaigns to change prescribing behavior, General Practitioners (GPs) continue to overprescribe benzodiazepines (BZDs). New approaches to improve prescribing are needed. Using behavior change techniques and tailoring interventions to user characteristics are vital to promote behavior change. This study evaluated the impact of an e-module on factors known to det...

Objectives: The objectives of this preliminary study were to identify a cohort of patients receiving outpatient prescriptions for a class of medications, benzodiazepines, that are known to increase the risk of adverse events, and to analyze the temporal association between outpatient benzodiazepine usage and inpatient and outpatient injury-related health care encounters for this cohort. Methods...

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder worldwide and anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) are always the first choice for treatment. However, more than 50% of patients with epilepsy who take AEDs have reported bone abnormalities. Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) isoenzymes are induced by AEDs, especially the classical AEDs, such as benzodiazepines (BZDs), carbamazepine (CBZ), phenytoin (PT), phenobarbital (...

The applicability of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) for the separation of benzodiazepine (BZD) derivates with different structural characteristics has been studied. Efforts were first focused on the optimization of the analytical conditions, on the effects of buffer concentration, surfactant concentration and buffer pH on the separation. To manipulate selectivity of the...

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioural components. Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are the major class of compounds used in anxiety and they remain the most commonly prescribed treatment for anxiety. In the present study, we have attempted to evaluate the acute anxiolytic activity of aqueous extract of fruits of Terminalia chebu...

BACKGROUND Malignant catatonia (MC) is a disorder consisting of catatonic symptoms, hyperthermia, autonomic instability, and altered mental status. Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) caused by antipsychotics is considered a variant of MC. Benzodiazepine (BZD) medications are safe and effective treatments providing rapid relief from MC. This case study reports a detailed clinical course of a c...