Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
BMC Psychiatry. 2023 May 26;23(1):370. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-04793-x.
The Z-drugs are indicated for the short-treatment of insomnia, but they are associated with abuse, dependence and side-effects. There are only sparse data about Z-drug prescribing in Greece.
We analyzed data from the Greek prescription database, considering prescriptions for the available Z-drugs in Greece, i.e., zolpidem and zopiclone, during the period from 01.10.2018 to 01.10.2021 in order to examine the prevalence, monthly number and characteristics of Z-drug prescriptions in Greece.
There were 1,229,842 prescriptions for Z-drugs (zolpidem: 89.7%) during the investigated period from 2018 to 2021, which corresponded to 156,554 patients (73.1% ≥ 65 years, 64.5% female). More than half of the patients (65.8%) had more than one prescription with a median number of 8, interquartile range IQR [3, 17], prescriptions during the three-year study period. Most patients (76.1%) were prescribed by medical specialties other than psychiatrists and neurologists, despite a considerable frequency of psychiatric comorbidities (53.7%). About half of patients with anxiety/depression were not prescribed anxiolytics or antidepressants, a practice more frequently observed among medical specialties other than psychiatrists and neurologists. The average annual prevalence of at least one prescription for Z-drugs in the Greek population during 2019-2020 was approximately 0.9% (higher in females and older adults). The monthly number of prescriptions was relatively stable with a median number of 334.2 IQR [310.4; 351.6] prescriptions per 100,000 persons.
A considerable number of patients are prescribed Z-drugs in Greece, more often older adults, females and patients with psychiatric comorbidities. The prescribing physicians were in the majority (70%) internists and general practitioners, while psychiatrists (10.9%) and neurologists (6.1%) accounted for a smaller proportion. Due to the limitations inherent to medical claims databases, further research is warranted in order to elucidate the potential abuse and misuse of Z-drugs.
Z 类药物被推荐用于短期失眠治疗，但它们与滥用、依赖和副作用有关。关于希腊开处 Z 类药物的相关数据非常有限。
我们分析了希腊处方数据库中的数据，研究了 2018 年 10 月 1 日至 2021 年 10 月 1 日期间希腊可用的 Z 类药物（唑吡坦和佐匹克隆）的处方情况，以考察希腊 Z 类药物的使用情况，包括其流行率、每月数量和特点。
在 2018 年至 2021 年的研究期间，共开出 1229842 张 Z 类药物处方（唑吡坦占 89.7%），涉及 156554 名患者（73.1%≥65 岁，64.5%为女性）。超过一半的患者（65.8%）有不止一张处方，中位数为 8 张，IQR[3,17]，在为期三年的研究期间内开出的处方。尽管有相当多的精神共病（53.7%），但大多数患者（76.1%）的处方由精神科医生和神经科医生以外的其他医学专业开具。约有一半的焦虑/抑郁患者未开抗焦虑药或抗抑郁药，这种情况在精神科医生和神经科医生以外的其他医学专业中更为常见。在 2019-2020 年期间，希腊人口中至少有一张 Z 类药物处方的年平均流行率约为 0.9%（女性和老年人更高）。每月开出的处方数量相对稳定，中位数为每 10 万人 334.2 IQR[310.4；351.6]张。
在希腊，相当多的患者开处 Z 类药物，这些患者往往是老年人、女性和有精神共病的患者。开处方的医生主要是（70%）内科医生和全科医生，而精神科医生（10.9%）和神经科医生（6.1%）的比例较小。由于医疗索赔数据库固有的限制，有必要进行进一步的研究，以阐明 Z 类药物的潜在滥用和误用情况。
