The Long-Term Prescription of Benzodiazepines, Psychotropic Agents, to the Elderly at a University Hospital in Japan
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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2007,The 212Long-Term, 239-246 Benzodiazepine Prescription in the Elderly 239 The Long-Term Prescription of Benzodiazepines, Psychotropic Agents, to the Elderly at a University Hospital in Japan KYOKO NOMURA, MUTSUHIRO NAKAO, MIKIYA SATO and EIJI YANO Department of Hygiene and Public Health, School of Medicine, Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan NOMURA, K., NAKAO, M., SATO, M. and YANO, E. The Long-Term Prescription of Benzodiazepines, Psychotropic Agents, to the Elderly at a University Hospital in Japan. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2007, 212 (3), 239-246 ── Benzodiazepines are useful and effec- tive psychotropic agents used worldwide. However, the long term use of the drugs can lead to serious adverse health effects such as psychomotor and cognitive impairment, espe- cially in the elderly. In Japan, there are very few reports concerning long-term use of ben- zodiazepines, and no countermeasures have been instituted. Thus, this study assessed the characteristics of long-term prescription of benzodiazepines at a university hospital in Japan. A cross-sectional study using the database of a computer ordering system examined 4,239 adult outpatients who were prescribed benzodiazepines at a university teaching hos- pital between July 2002 and June 2003. The patients were divided into two groups: those with long-term (≧ 3 months) and short-term (≦ 2 months) prescriptions. A logistic regression model was used to analyze the effect of patient age on long-term benzodiaze- pine prescription. Adjusting for patient gender, pharmacological half-life of the drug, and department group, a logistic regression model showed that long-term benzodiazepine pre- scription occurred more frequently in older patients (p < 0.0001 in trend tests) and varied according to the physician’s specialty (p < 0.0001). Benzodiazepines were more frequent- ly prescribed for long term in the elderly by internal medicine group (p = 0.003). Of the patients older than 71 years (n = 1,105), 86% were assigned to the long-term group and were more likely to have been prescribed benzodiazepines by an internist than a surgeon (p < 0.0001). The appropriate prescription of benzodiazepines in the elderly should be included in the educational programs at teaching hospitals, and rational prescribing needs to be monitored carefully. ──── benzodiazepine; computer ordering system; elderly; long-term prescription; university hospital © 2007 Tohoku University Medical Press Benzodiazepines are useful and effective are less toxic than barbiturates when they are used psychotropic agents used worldwide. Their thera- in overdose and have thus become one of the most peutic actions as anxiolytics, sedative hypnotics, prescribed classes of drugs. A literature (Woods anticonvulsants, and muscle relaxants have led to et al. 1992) reported that about 2% of the adult their use as first-line treatments. In addition, they populations in the United States (4 million peo- Received March 7, 2007; revision accepted for publication May 12, 2007. Correspondence: Kyoko Nomura, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., Department of Hygiene and Public Health, School of Medicine, Teikyo University, 2-11-1, Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan. e-mail: [email protected] 239 240 K. Nomura et al. The Long-Term Benzodiazepine Prescription in the Elderly 241 ple) and United Kingdom (1 million people) were is unclear if previous risk profiles are being con- prescribed benzodiazepines as hypnotics or tran- sidered in light of the long-term prescription of quilizers. In Japan, benzodiazepines are quite these drugs to this age group. Therefore, we popular in clinical practice, although a population- investigated long-term benzodiazepine prescrip- based survey needs to be conducted to determine tions especially to the elderly at a university the prevalence of benzodiazepine use in the gen- teaching hospital in Japan. eral population (Yamawaki 1999). In 1999, the Teikyo University School of Despite their usefulness, benzodiazepines Medicine installed a computer ordering system have serious adverse effects, including sedation, (COS), which has been used to monitor drug pre- psychomotor and cognitive impairment, and scriptions in every clinical department at the hos- memory loss, and they induce withdrawal reac- pital. Using data available through the COS, the tions and physical dependence (Nelson and university has launched several research projects Chouinard 1999). Hence, it has been recom- to study evidence-based health care services at the mended that their use be limited to short interven- hospital (Nakao et al. 2007). This study was part tions (Committee on Safety of Medicine 1988; of a project to assist physicians in developing Royal College of Psychiatrists 1988; Fick et al. more rational protocols for appropriate drug pre- 2003; Ashton 2005). Nevertheless, many epide- scription. miological studies (Magrini et al. 1996; Simon et al. 1996; Egan et al. 2000a, b; Gray et al. 2003; MATERIALS AND METHODS Fialova et al. 2005; Voyer et al. 2006) in Europe, Data set the United States, and Canada, have reported that We created a new data set of patient information benzodiazepines are prescribed for the long term, using Access 2000 (Microsoft Japan, Tokyo) based on especially to the elderly, women with psychologi- the original COS database accumulated at Teikyo cal problems and chronic physical diseases, and University Itabashi Hospital, Tokyo, Japan (1,154 hospi- users of long-acting type benzodiazepines. Of tal beds). This university teaching hospital has 19 these three types of users, the elderly constitute department clinics, with approximately 60,000 outpa- the most vulnerable population because the long- tients visiting annually. The variables retrieved from the term use of benzodiazepines increases the risks of COS database were patient gender and age, prescribing falls and fractures (Pierfitte et al. 2001; Wagner et department, benzodiazepine pharmacological half-life, al. 2004), and cognitive and memory changes and the date of benzodiazepine prescription. (Paterniti et al. 2002; Barker et al. 2004) that could dramatically decrease their quality of life. Patients Therefore, although the high prevalence of use Fig. 1 is a flow chart of our study subjects. The among the elderly has been reported repeatedly, it subjects consisted of 5,959 adult outpatients who had Fig. 1. A flow chart of the study subjects. 240 K. Nomura et al. The Long-Term Benzodiazepine Prescription in the Elderly 241 visited the hospital and were prescribed benzodiazepines room, plastic surgery, and cardiovascular surgery. The by physicians between July 2002 and June 2003. After internal medicine group consisted of the general internal excluding 1,720 patients who were prescribed benzodi- medicine and neurology departments. The psychiatry azepines at two or more different clinics, 4,239 patients group was composed of the psychiatry and mind/body (59% female, mean age 57 years) receiving benzodiaze- medicine departments, and the “other” group included pines were selected for the analyses. The patients were the pediatrics, dermatology, radiology, anesthesiology, divided into two groups depending on the prescription and rehabilitation departments and the hemodialysis length based on previous studies (WHO Collaborating center. Centre for Drugs 1996; Zandstra et al. 2002) ; the long- Although the diagnostic information was prelimi- term group consisted of those with prescription periods nary during the study period (the annual report of the of 3 months or more (mean ± S.D.: 8.0 ± 2.7 months) and hospital, unpublished), the major ICD-10 diagnoses in the short-term group had prescription periods of 2 internal medicine were angina pectoris, followed by months or less (1.4 ± 0.5 months). In Japan, according to chronic renal failure, primary lung cancer, old myocardi- the Health Insurance Law, physicians can write a pre- al infarction, and hepatocellular carcinoma, while those scription for hypnotics for up to 14 days; hence, patients in surgery were inguinal hernia, followed by gastric can- who take the drug continuously have to see a physician cer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and hepatocellular at least twice a month. The data set used in this study carcinoma. The total number of new outpatients in the contained the date of prescription, and we defined the psychiatry group was 1,549, of which 19.5% had depres- prescription time period based on this date. sive disorders. During the study period, the numbers of physicians employed in the aforementioned groups were Benzodiazepines 190 in the internal medicine group, 354 in the surgery Referring to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical group, 60 in the psychiatry group and 84 in the other Classification System (WHO Collaborating Centre for department group. Drugs 1996) index groups, including N05BA (N = ner- vous system, N05B = anxiolytics, 01 = diazepam, 02 = Statistical analysis medazepam, 04 = oxazolam, 06 = lorazepam, 08 = bro- Chi-square tests were used to compare patient mazepam, 12 = alprazolam, 18 = ethyl loflazepate, 19 = gender, department group, and pharmacological half-life etizolam, 21 = clotiazepam, 22 = cloxazolam, 23 = tofi- between the long- and short-term groups, and the t-test sopam), N05CD (N05C = hypnotics and sedatives, 01 = was applied to compare age between the two groups. To flurazepam, 02 = nitrazepam, 03 = flunitrazepam, 05 = clarify the patient characteristics in each age category, triazolam, 06 = lormetazepam, 09 = brotiazepam, 10 = patient age was transformed into four