Quality Of Life Amongst Benzodiazepine Users Pre And Post Deprescribing

ABSTRACT

Objective: The study aimed to analyze the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients utilizing benzodiazepines (BZDs). Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted among 109 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The patients consuming BZDs more than the prescribed duration were identified and deprescribed. Deprescribing plan was advised after discussing with the prescribing psychiatrist and inappropriate BZD users. The QoL of patient’s pre and post-intervention amongst both the continuing and deprescribed groups was evaluated by WHO-QoL BREF questionnaire. Results: Mean scores in the domains of physical health (71.48), psychological health (68.74), social relationships (65.15) and environmental health (68) among the deprescribed group was higher compared to the maintenance group. Independent t-test statistic for QoL showed a statistical significance in all 4 domains with p value<0.05. Conclusion: The current study emphasizes that deprescribing of BZDs as shared decision model involving the physician, pharmacist and patients improves the QoL of the patient.