ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2024
The COVID-19 pandemic and the use of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine-related drugs in Estonia: an interrupted time-series analysis.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Primary Care Prescribing Patterns for Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs, and Evidence Gaps Concerning Hydroxyzine and Seasonality: A Systematic Review.Clinics and practice · 2026Review
- Prevalence and Incidence of Oral Benzodiazepine Use in Hospitalized Surgical Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Annals of surgery · 2026Article
- Clinical and Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients: Hospitalization Burden, De Novo Anxiolytic Use, and Long-Term Survival.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Impact of policy measures targeting benzodiazepines and Benzodiazepine-related drugs in Lithuania: interrupted time series analysis.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Benzodiazepine prescribing patterns among Medicare providers, 2017 to 2023.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Bidirectional associations between chronic diseases and Long COVID: a population-based cohort and interrupted time-series analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A hidden confounder for microbiome studies: medications used years before sample collection.mSystems · 2025Article
- Child and adolescent mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: an overview of key findings from a thematic series.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Review
- Benzodiazepine use in Spain: risks and perspectives on the current situation and proposals for their rational use.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Patterns and Emerging Trends in Acute Poisoning with Substances of Abuse Used for Recreational Purposes in Adolescents: A Six-Year Multicentre Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges that worsened people's mental health. We explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental well-being of the population, as indicated by the prevalence rates of benzodiazepine and benzodiazepine-related drug (BDZ) use.
methodsThis population-based, time-series analysis included all prescriptions of BDZs dispensed in Estonia between 2012 and 2021. The monthly prevalence rates of BDZ use were calculated. Autoregressive integrated moving average models with pulse and slope intervention functions tested for temporary and long-term changes in monthly prevalence rates after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
resultsThroughout the 10-year study period, a total of 5,528,911 BDZ prescriptions were dispensed to 397,436 individuals. A significant temporary increase in the overall prevalence rate of BDZ use in March 2020 (2.698 users per 1000, 95% CI 1.408-3.988) was observed, but there was no statistically significant long-term change. This temporary increase affected all the examined subgroups, except for new users, individuals aged 15-29 years, and prescribing specialists other than general practitioners and psychiatrists. The long-term increase in BDZ use was confined to females aged 15-29 years (0.056 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI 0.033-0.079), while no significant change was observed among males of the same age (0.009 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI - 0.017 to 0.035). Among females aged 15-29 years, a significant long-term increase in BDZ use was observed for anxiety disorders (0.017 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI 0.010-0.023), depressive disorders (0.021 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI 0.012-0.030), and other mental and behavioral disorders (0.020 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI 0.010-0.030), but not for sleep disorders (- 0.008 users per 1000 per month, 95% CI - 0.018-0.002).
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic led to a short-term increase in BDZ use immediately after the pandemic was declared. In the long term, young females experienced a sustained increase in BDZ use. The prolonged effect on girls and young women suggests their greater vulnerability. These results underscore the need to effectively address the long-term effects of the pandemic among youth.
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