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Author’s Address: Nancy C. Bernardy, Ph.D., is affiliated with the National Center for PTSD, Department of Veterans Affairs, White River Junction, VT 05009, and the Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH. Email Address: [email protected]. Benzodiazepines were introduced in the 1960’s to replace barbiturates, which were effective as sedatives but were d...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the use of benzodiazepines on prescription of opioids 4-7 years later in patients with noncancer pain. DESIGN A cohort of 7,991 men and 9,083 women aged 40, 45 and 60 years who reported no use of opioids in health surveys in 2000-2001 was linked to the nationwide Norwegian Prescription Database, and their prescriptions of opioids during 2004-2007 were analy...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety of benzodiazepines and opioids in patients with very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). DESIGN Population based longitudinal consecutive cohort study. SETTING Centres prescribing long term oxygen therapy in Sweden. PATIENTS 2249 patients starting long term oxygen therapy for COPD in Sweden between 2005 and 2009 in the national Swedevox Re...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of a restriction on publicly subsidised temazepam 10 mg capsules upon the injection of benzodiazepines by injecting drug users (IDUs). DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional study of regular IDUs targeting periods before and after the policy change. Analysis of prescription data, including time-series analysis. SETTING Drug services in the capital cities of N...

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of reports in the U.S. of the use of drugs to commit sexual assault. In 1994, a nationwide urine testing program was developed to assess the incidence of the use of drugs to facilitate sexual assault and provide information for use in the investigation of these crimes. Urine samples were collected from victims of suspected drug-induced se...

BACKGROUND Benzodiazepines are often used on a long term basis in the elderly to treat various psychological disorders including sleep disorders, some neurological disorders and anxiety. This is despite the risk of dependence, cognitive impairment, and falls and fractures. Guidelines, campaigns and prescribing restrictions have been used to raise awareness of potentially inappropriate use, howe...

Patients with acute lumbar disc prolapse with sciatica who are not considered candidates for surgery are usually treated with physiotherapy and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. Moreover, the treatment with benzodiazepines is common practice in the absence of class I or II level of evidence. Here we assessed the role of benzodiazepines in the conservative management of acute lumbar disc p...