Reducing Long-term Diazepam Prescribing in Office Practice
A Controlled Trial of Educational Visits
- Wayne A. Ray, PhD;
- Dan G. Blazer II, MD, PhD;
- William Schaffner, MD;
- Charles F. Federspiel, PhD;
- Raymond Fink, PhD
- From the Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn (Drs Ray, Schaffner, and Federspiel); the Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (Dr Blazer); and the Department of Preventive Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla (Dr Fink).
Abstract
We conducted a controlled, statewide trial of the efficacy of an educational visit by a physician counselor in the reduction of diazepam prescribing in outpatient practice. A novel aspect of this trial was the provision of a schedule for gradual withdrawal of long-term diazepam users from drug therapy; 51% of visited doctors attempted to withdraw patients from diazepam therapy and 26% utilized the withdrawal schedule. The entire group of 43 visited doctors reduced the rate of long-term diazepam users in their practice by 18% relative to the control group; the subgroup of doctors who utilized the withdrawal schedule had an even greater reduction of 33% These results suggest that practicing doctors are concerned with long-term use of diazepam and that the educational visit by another physician is one method for reducing such use.
(JAMA 1986;256:2536-2539)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232 (Dr Ray).
