The 4th Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference, 5-9 April 2014, Florence, Italy: a summary of topics and trends.

The 4th Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference was held in Florence, Italy, April 5-9, 2014 and this year had as its emphasis, "Fostering Collaboration in Schizophrenia Research". Student travel awardees served as rapporteurs for each oral session, summarized the important contributions of each session and then each report was integrated into a final summary of data discussed at the entire conference by topic. It is hoped that by combining data from different presentations, patterns of interest will emerge and thus lead to new progress for the future. In addition, the following report provides an overview of the conference for those who were present, but could not participate in all sessions, and those who did not have the opportunity to attend, but who would be interested in an update on current investigations ongoing in the field of schizophrenia research.

Benzodiazepine overuse in an internal medicine outpatient department: a prospective study

Objective: This study aims to assess benzodiazepine overuse, in particular indications, prolonged use, and dependence for usage in out-patients treated at the internal medicine clinic of Chiang Mai University Hospital. Methods: The indications of benzodiazepine usage were examined by using the Thai Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in patients who were started on benzodiazepines. The duration of benzodiazepine usage was classified into: i) less than 1 month; ii) 1-6 months; and iii) longer than 6 months, and benzodiazepine dependence was assessed by using the Severity of Dependence Scale. Results: Of 40 out-patients started on benzodiazepines, only one of them (2.5%) had clinically significant anxiety. Of 58 outpatients receiving benzodiazepines, 42 patients (72.4%) had used benzodiazepines longer than 6 months. In addition, 8 patients (13.8%) were dependent on benzodiazepines. Conclusions: Benzodiazepine overuse is common in physically ill out-patients, even in the university hospital. Almost half of the surveyed patients appear to have prolonged benzodiazepine use; however, only a few patients are dependent on benzodiazepines.