A clinical profile of patients affected by state regulation of benzodiazepine prescriptions.

OBJECTIVE

In 1989 New York State extended regulation of controlled substances to benzodiazepines. To study the effects on patients, the authors examined characteristics of patients who came to a psychiatric outpatient clinic seeking benzodiazepines during the year after the regulation took effect.

METHODS

Demographic and clinical characteristics of 44 patients who sought benzodiazepines were compared with those of 297 other patients evaluated at the clinic during the same period. Compliance with clinic treatment recommendations by patients who sought benzodiazepines was assessed at six-month follow-up.

RESULTS

Patients seeking benzodiazepines were predominantly impoverished minority women with a diagnosis of a mood disorder or anxiety disorder. Most were not drug or alcohol abusers. After evaluation at the clinic, nearly half received prescriptions for antidepressant medications instead of benzodiazepines. Although the patients seeking benzodiazepines had many psychosocial problems, they had poor compliance with clinic psychotherapy interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

Regulation of benzodiazepine prescriptions appeared to significantly disrupt the treatment of some patients and to encourage them to seek treatment in a psychiatric setting. The high frequency of mood disorders among these patients suggests that some patients may have been misdiagnosed earlier as having anxiety disorder and raises questions about the appropriateness of their previous use of benzodiazepines.