Bull World Health Organ. 1983;61(4):551-62.
Benzodiazepines are widely used for the treatment of anxiety, insomnia, and certain neuromuscular and convulsive disorders. However, their widespread availability has given rise to fears that they are over-prescribed. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is no universal agreement among medical practitioners as to the clinical indications warranting the use of these drugs. Although most industrialized countries exercise control over the sale and manufacture of benzodiazepines, many developing countries do not have sufficient control of these drugs. As a result, information on drug utilization and associated problems is difficult to obtain and there is a lack of comparative data on drug consumption in different countries.The present article describes the current knowledge on the pharmacological, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics of benzodiazepines, and the problems associated with their use, and indicates areas where more research is needed. Recommendations are made for future work.
苯二氮䓬类药物被广泛用于治疗焦虑症、失眠症以及某些神经肌肉和惊厥性疾病。然而，它们的广泛可得性引发了人们对其处方过量的担忧。由于执业医师对于使用这些药物的临床指征尚未达成普遍共识，这一问题变得更加复杂。尽管大多数工业化国家对苯二氮䓬类药物的销售和生产实行管控，但许多发展中国家对这些药物的管控不足。因此，关于药物使用及相关问题的信息难以获取，并且缺乏不同国家药物消费的比较数据。本文描述了目前关于苯二氮䓬类药物的药理、临床和流行病学特征以及与其使用相关问题的知识，并指出了需要更多研究的领域。同时为未来的工作提出了建议。
