New Study Published on the Gradual Reduction of Long-Term Benzos

June 8, 2022 — I have been privileged to be involved with two separate teams publishing research on benzodiazepines in 2022. The first of these was published in April of this year and was the first of a series of papers on the benzodiazepine survey of 2018-2019. That paper was titled: “Experiences with benzodiazepine use, tapering, and discontinuation: an Internet survey.”

The second team was based in Ireland and was focused on developing guidance for the reduction of benzodiazepines after long-term use. The title of this paper is “Supporting safe and gradual reduction of long-term benzodiazepine receptor agonist use: Development of the SAFEGUARDING-BZRAs toolkit using a codesign approach,” and was published yesterday in Health Expectations: An International Journal of Public Participation in Health Care and Health Policy.

The team for this new study consisted of benzo experts from a variety of disciplines and countries including lead author, Tom Lynch (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland), Colin Bradley (University College Cork, Ireland), D. Foster (Benzodiazepine Action Work Group, USA), Christy Huff (Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, USA), Sharon Hutchinson (Dublin, Ireland), Nicole Lamberson (Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, USA), Lily Lynch (Belgrade, Serbia), and Cathal Cadogan (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland).  

The methods involved in the development of this “SAFEGUARDING-BZRAs” toolkit involved “a previous systematic review of brief interventions targeting long-term BZRA [benzodiazepine receptor agonists] use in primary care and qualitative interviews based on the Theoretical Domains Framework that explored barriers and facilitators to discontinuing long-term BZRA use.”

The toolkit comprises 24 behavior change techniques (BCTs) targeted at primary care providers to help support individuals with benzodiazepine (BZRA) discontinuation. 60 BCTs were originally considered and 36 were removed from the list either due to irrelevancy, inflexibility, or other considerations making them inappropriate for benzodiazepine discontinuation.

This toolkit addresses “identified limitations of previous research (e.g., lack of detailed intervention description, lack of appropriate theoretical underpinning) and adds to the body of literature relating to behaviour change interventions targeting discontinuation of long-term BZRA use.” You can read the entire article via the links below.

Talk soon, D 🙂

View Online Article Here: http://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13547