Use of Benzodiazepine On the Rise, Increases with Age

The use of Benzodiazepine in the United States increases with age and is more prevalent among women then men, according to a recent study.

“Despite cautions concerning risks associated with long-term benzodiazepine use, especially in older patients, long-term benzodiazepine use remains common in this age group,” said the authors of the study.
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For the study, researchers evaluated the percentage of adults who filled 1 or more benzodiazepine prescriptions during the year (based on sex and age group) from the 2008 LifeLink LRx Longitudinal Prescription database. The groups were 18 to 35 years, 36 to 50 years, 51 to 65 years, and 65 to 80 years.

The study showed that benzodiazepine use was approximately twice as common in women as in men, and benzodiazepine use increased with age from 2.6% (18 to 35 years) to 5.4% (36 to 50 years) to 7.4% (51 to 64 years) to 8.7% (65 to 80 years).

Long term use of benzodiazepine increased with age from 14.7% to 31.4% (18 to 35 years vs 65 to 80 years).

“More vigorous clinical interventions supporting judicious benzodiazepine use may be needed to decrease rates of long-term benzodiazepine use in older adults,” they concluded.

The complete study is published in the December issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

-Michelle Canales

Reference:

Olfson M, King M, Schoenbaum M, et al. Benzodiazepine use in the United States. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014 December [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1763.