Prescribing practices in Southeastern Europe - focus on benzodiazepine prescription at discharge from nine university psychiatric hospitals

There is much concern about the widespread long-term use of benzodiazepines. Our manuscript addressed its use in the region of Southeastern Europe, which seems extensive, but insufficiently explored. At nine university psychiatric hospitals (Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia), we retrospectively analyzed discharge summary documents to find the prevalence of discharge benzodiazepine prescriptions and the prescribed benzodiazepine doses. This study included 1047 adult subjects and showed that 81.9% of them had benzodiazepines prescribed in the discharge summary document, with high mean daily dose of around 5 mg lorazepam equivalents. Factors associated with the prescriptions were exclusively clinical factors (diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, more lifetime hospitalizations, psychiatric comorbidity, co-prescription of antidepressant or mood stabilizer, shorter duration of the hospitalization), while socio-demographic factors were not found to influence benzodiazepine discharge prescriptions. Similarly, factors which influenced the prescription of higher daily benzodiazepine dose were more lifetime psychiatric hospitalizations and co-prescription of antidepressant or mood stabilizer, as well as the diagnosis of mental/behavioral disorders due to substance use and co-prescribed antipsychotic. Our data are emphasizing an urgent need for guidelines and improved education of both health care professionals and patients, in order to prevent long term benzodiazepine (mis)use and related side-effects.