Factors Associated with Long Term Use of Benzodiazepines and Effects of Interventions on Decreasing BZD Long Term Use among Patients Suffering from Depression or Anxiety

Benzodiazepine (BZD) drugs have been widely used to treat anxiety, however the risk of adverse health effect caused by long term use is high. In spite of recommendations of BZD prescription from health department in many countries, problematic use of BZD still remains and needs to be concerned. This project is to examine factors associated with problematic BZD use from multiple dimensions among people with anxiety and/or depressive disorders, develop an intervention and examine the effects of the intervention on improving problematic use of BZD. Cross-sectional study design will be used in the first phase project. Patients from psychiatric OPD who have been prescribed for BZD will be recruited. Collected data include daily amount and use pattern of BZD and its indication, anxiety and depression state, severity of BZD dependence, sleeping quality, and knowledge of and attitude regarding BZD use. The second phase project is a randomized controlled trial. Patients from Psychiatric OPD who diagnosed of depression-related disorders and have continuously used BZD for its anxiolytic effect for at least 3 months will be included, and randomly assigned into three groups. Participants in the intervention group 1 receive gradual dose reduction (GDR) and behavioral modification intervention based on transtheoretical model and motivational interview, participants in the intervention group 2 receive GDR, and participants in the control group receive routine care. The primary outcome will be the average use of BZD and daily dose of BZD, and the secondary outcome will be severity of BZD dependence, sleeping quality, and knowledge of and attitude regarding BZD use. Data will be measured at baseline, 10 weeks, 3months, 6 months and 1 year. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis will be applied in this first phase to determine factors associated with problematic BZD use. Generalized estimating equation analysis will be applied to examine the intervention effects in the second phase.

Project ID:PC10412-0010
External Project ID:MOST104-2314-B182-067