Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Abstract
This review discusses risks, benefits, and alternatives in patients already taking benzodiazepines when care transfers to a new clinician. Prescribers have the decision—sometimes mutually agreed-upon and sometimes unilateral—to continue, discontinue, or change treatment. This decision should be made based on evidence-based indications (conditions and timeframes), comorbidities, potential drug-drug interactions, and evidence of adverse effects, misuse, abuse, dependence, or diversion. We discuss management tools involved in continuation (e.g., monitoring symptoms, laboratory testing, prescribing contracts, state prescription databases, stages of change) and discontinuation (e.g., tapering, psychotherapeutic interventions, education, handouts, reassurance, medications to assist with discontinuation, and alternative treatments).
Repository Citation
Guina, J.,
& Merrill, B.
(2018). Benzodiazepines II: Waking up on Sedatives: Providing Optimal Care when Inheriting Benzodiazepine Prescriptions in Transfer Patients. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 7 (2).
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/psychiatry/72
DOI
10.3390/jcm7020020
Comments
Copyright © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).