TY - JOUR AU - Neutel, C. Ineke AU - Skurtveit, Svetlana AU - Berg, Christian PY - 2012/11/29 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Benzodiazepine and z-hypnotic use in Norwegian elderly, aged 65-79 JF - Norsk Epidemiologi JA - Nor J Epidemiol VL - 22 IS - 2 SE - DO - 10.5324/nje.v22i2.1567 UR - https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/norepid/article/view/1567 SP - AB - <p><strong><em>Purpose</em></strong>: Benzodiazepines/z-hypnotics (BZD-Z) guidelines suggest that elderly people ought to use anxiolytic benzodiazepines (BZD) and z-hypnotics only at low dose and only for a short time, and that hypnotic BZD not should be used at all. Since the elderly aged 65-79 tend to be recently retired but still in relatively good health, they may have different needs for BZD-Z than those older or younger. Our objective is to examine BZD-Z use in this age group.</p><p><em><strong>Methods</strong></em>: The study population consisted of Norwegians, aged 65-79, who filled prescriptions for anxiolytic BZD, hypnotic BZD and/or z-hypnotics in 2004-2009. The quantities prescribed were in daily defined doses (DDD), and 100 DDD/year was deemed excessive.</p><p><em><strong>Results:</strong></em> More than a quarter of the population received at least one BZD-Z prescription each year. Half of those received more than 100 DDD/year and a quarter received over 250 DDD/year, with these proportions increasing year by year. All three subgroups of BZD-Z showed increasing use with age and all except anxiolytic BZD showed increasing proportions of users using more than 100 DDD/year with age.</p><p><em><strong>Conclusions:</strong></em> Substantial numbers of elderly aged 65-79 receive prescriptions for BZD-Z, more with increasing age, and greater amounts per user. Guidelines are clearly ignored. While a rigid enforcement of guidelines/rules is not the answer, allowing the status quo to continue shows lack of respect for guidelines.</p> ER -