[Effect of feedback and self-evaluation on the prescription of addictive drugs]

Abstract

Prescribing of anti-anxiety benzodiazepines was registered in five one month periods in 1989 and 1990 in Moss, a medium-sized Norwegian town. The general practitioners received feed-back on their own prescribing habits and were offered an opportunity to meet colleagues in a self-evaluation group. The results indicate that GPs are influenced by such feed-back, since a reduction in the amount of defined daily doses prescribed was registered. The reduction was mainly a consequence of a change to prescribing a smaller number of pills on each occasion. The authors anticipated a potential reduction in prescribing to elderly persons, but in fact found a substantial reduction in the prescribing of anti-anxiety drugs to young men (with a potential problem of misuse).