title: Socio-demographic factors and long-term use of benzodiazepines in patients with depression, anxiety or insomnia.
abstract: Former studies that have attempted to characterize individual socio-demographic factors associated with long-term benzodiazepine use were based on relatively small sample sizes and/or self-reported data. Our aim was to clarify this using large-scale primary health care data from Sweden. The present study covered 71 primary health care centres containing individual-level data from a total of 919, 941 individuals who visited a primary health care centre (PHCC) during the period 2001-2007. From this database we selected individuals 25 years or older with depression, anxiety and/or insomnia and who were prescribed a benzodiazepine within 0-90 as well as 91-270 days after their first clinical diagnosis of depression, anxiety and/or insomnia. Older age (OR, 2.92, 95% CI, 2.28-3.84), middle SES (OR, 1.22, 95% CI, 1.08-1.38), being on social welfare (OR, 1.40, 95% CI, 1.23-1.62) and not being married were associated with higher long-term benzodiazepine use. The PHCCs only explained a small part of the individual variation in long-term benzodiazepine use. Awareness of the impact on long-term benzodiazepine use of certain individual-level socio-demographic factors is important for health care workers and decision-makers who should aim at targeting general interventions at all primary health care centres.
authors.affiliation: Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Electronic address: cecilia.sjostedt@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sjöstedt
authors.affiliation: Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Electronic address: henrik.ohlsson@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohlsson
authors.affiliation: Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Electronic address: xinjun.li@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Xinjun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Electronic address: kristina.sundquist@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sundquist
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D001569:Benzodiazepines
keywords: Anxiety; Benzodiazepines; Depression; Primary care