[Should we continue to use benzodiazepines in clinical practice?]

Abstract

The discovery of benzodiazepines has represented a milestone in the history of pharmacological treatments and in relation to the management of anxiety, sleep and other psychiatric disorders. After several decades, these agents still represent one of the largest and most widely prescribed groups of medications, not only in the psychiatric clinical practice, but also in the whole medical field. Over the last decade, however, multiple concerns have been raised on the risks related to the prescription of benzodiazepines, for their addictive potential and for cognitive side-effects. Therefore, benzodiazepines are today considered as a double-edge sword, which should be carefully handled and preferentially prescribed by specialists (or at least under their supervision), after an adequate training. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many situations, and the need to improve training on benzodiazepines management has been recently emphasized.