ArticleDeutsches Arzteblatt international2019
Problematic Medication With Benzodiazepines, "Z-drugs", and Opioid Analgesics.
Article in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- [Recommendations of the second update of the LONTS guidelines : Long-term opioid therapy for chronic noncancer pain].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2020Pooled it
- Non-Guideline-Compliant Prescriptions of Benzodiazepines and Z Drugs: Effects of Social Norm Feedback. A Randomized Controlled Trial.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Trial
- [Z-drugs and the risk of sleep driving].Der Nervenarzt · 2025Review
- The Incidence of Benzodiazepine and Benzodiazepine-Related Drug Use in People With and Without Parkinson's Disease-A Nationwide Cohort Study.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Article
- Observational
- Factors influencing pain medication and opioid use in patients with musculoskeletal injuries: a retrospective insurance claims database study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Prescribing Z-drugs in Greece: an analysis of the national prescription database from 2018 to 2021.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Long-term use of benzodiazepines in chronic insomnia: a European perspective.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The Use of Psychoactive Substances in Germany.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2022Article
- Article
- Subtypes in Patients Taking Prescribed Opioid Analgesics and Their Characteristics: A Latent Class Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Trends in risky prescriptions of opioid analgesics from 2011 to 2015 in Northern Germany.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- Explanation of Methods Is Needed.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020Article
- A Trend Towards Causal Therapy.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020Article
- Description of Problematic Medications Alone Is Not Enough.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020Article
- In Reply.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2020Article
- Trends In Substance Use And Related Disorders: Analysis of the Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse 1995 to 2018.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAn estimated 1.4 to 2.6 million people in German suffer from drug dependence. Most of them are long-term users of benzodiazepines (BZD), Z drugs (ZD), or opioid analgesics (OA).
methodsThis analysis is based on prescription data from patients of the national statutory health insurance system in the German federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, and Lower Saxony. Drug-taking trends, duration, dosage, and long-term use of BZD, ZD, and OA in the years 2006 to 2015 are analyzed; prevalences are estimated for the years 2006 to 2016.
resultsIn 2006, 7.7% of patients received at least one prescription for a BZD, ZD, or OA; in 2016, 7.0% did. Over the period of analysis, a marked drop was seen in prescriptions of BZD and a slight fall in prescriptions of ZD (2006: BZD 3.5%, ZS 1.1%; 2016: BZD 2.0%, ZS 0.8%), but there was also an increase in prescriptions of OA, from 4.2% to 4.9%. The number of defined daily doses (DDD) prescribed per year fell for both BZD and ZD. For OA, the number of DDD prescribed per year rose from 2006 to 2009 and decreased by a small amount in subsequent years. The proportions of BZD and ZD patients who had long-term prescriptions fell over time, while the corresponding percentage of OA patients rose.
conclusionNearly one-fifth of all prescriptions for BZD were long-term prescriptions for an entire year, in violation of the relevant guidelines. The rising prevalence of OA use was in the expected range in view of the aging population, but the number of prescriptions rose among younger patients as well. This trend toward more common treatment with opioid analgesics should be critically examined.
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