Benzodiazepines in Addition to Antidepressants in the Treatment of Severely Depressed Inpatients – How Often Does it Lead to Long-Term Intake?

Objective: The study evaluates the risk of inducing long-term treatment with benzodiazepines (BZDs), when severely depressed patients are treated with BZDs in addition to antidepressants to bridge the delayed efficacy of antidepres-sants. Method: Medical charts of 880 depressed inpatients were analysed regarding medication and psychopathology. If medi-cation at dismissal included BZDs, patients were followed up and their physicians were asked about the current medi-cation 12-15 months later. Results: 486 patients (55%) received BZDs during hospitalisation. In comparison to BZD-free patients, these pa-tients suffered significantly more often from severe recurrent depression than from dysthymia or adjustment disorder. They were also older and predominantly female. At discharge, 45 % of these patients still received BZDs. At one-year follow-up, 39 % of patients treated with BZDs at discharge still took BZDs. However, 67 % of these patients had re-ceived BZDs already before inpatient treatment. Conclusion: Psychiatrists should be concerned about the frequent BZDs use. BZDs should be withdrawn before dis-charge, because there is a high risk of dependency. However, most of these long-intake patients took BZDs already prior to inpatient treatment. During inpatient treatment patients have to be informed with regard to the consequences of long-term intake of BZDs (German J Psychiatry 2008; 11: 134-140)