ArticleEuropean journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice2024
Reducing the use of sleep-inducing drugs during hospitalisation by a multi-faceted intervention: a pilot study.
Article in European journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Dementia and Sleep Disorders: The Effects of Drug Therapy in a Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Recent Evidence on Factors and Potential Interventions Affecting Patient Sleep in Inpatient and Hospital Settings.Current psychiatry reports · 2026Review
- Benzodiazepines use and dependence in female patients with overactive bladder symptoms - prevalence and clinical correlations.Central European journal of urology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
objectivesMany patients receive benzodiazepines or Z-drugs during hospitalisation due to sleeping problems. In a pilot study, we aimed to find out whether, and to what degree, a multi-faceted intervention can reduce the use of these drugs, especially in older patients and those without a psychiatric or neurological disorder. The results of this pilot study should inform the design of a randomised controlled trial (RCT).
methodsIn a quasi-experimental design, we implemented the intervention in a German hospital with the support of the hospital director, medical and nursing staff and employee representatives. We compared prescription data for sleep-inducing drugs before and after the intervention by Fisher's exact test and used odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% CIs as a measure of effect size.
resultsThe data from 960 patients aged ≥65 years before intervention and 1049 patients after intervention were analysed. Before intervention, 483 (50.3%) of the patients received sleep-inducing drugs at some time during their hospital stay. After the intervention, 381 (36.3%) patients received a sleep-inducing drug, resulting in an OR of 0.56 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.68) (p<0.001). The reduction was particularly pronounced in patients without a psychiatric or neurological disorder (from 45.0% to 28.8%). In particular, the consumption of benzodiazepines declined from 24.3% to 8.5% (OR 0.31; 95% CI 0.23 to 0.4) (p<0.001).
conclusionsA multi-faceted intervention to change the practice of the use of sleep-inducing drugs in one hospital was successful in terms of drug reduction, particularly for benzodiazepines. The intervention was effective especially for target persons-that is, those without a psychiatric or neurological disease. Awareness of the magnitude of the change and the role of important stakeholders could help researchers and hospital staff to design a large RCT, including control hospitals, to evaluate the success of a multi-faceted intervention on a scientifically sound basis.
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