Reimbursement Restriction and Moderate Decrease in Benzodiazepine Use in General Practice

The Article in Brief

Reimbursement Restriction and Moderate Decrease in Benzodiazepine Use in General Practice

Jo�lle M. Hoebert , and colleagues

Background In 2009, the Netherlands began limiting reimbursement for benzodiazepines to limit misuse and reduce costs. (Benzodiazepines are widely used to treat anxiety, panic disorders and insomnia, as well as in neurologic and rheumatologic conditions.) This study aimes to assess the impact of this reimbursement restriction on benzodiazepine use in patients newly diagnosed with anxiety or sleeping disorders in general practice.

What This Study Found The policy change restricting benzodiazepine reimbursement led to a moderate decrease in the number of new diagnoses of anxiety and sleeping disorder and a reduction in benzodiazepine prescriptions among patients with newly diagnosed disorders. Analyzing data on 13,596 patients with an incident diagnosis of anxiety or sleeping disorder, researchers found a significantly lower incidence of sleeping disorder diagnoses and anxiety diagnoses after the restriction went into effect. Moreover, the proportion of patients being prescribed a benzodiazepine after a diagnosis was lower in 2009 than in 2008 for both anxiety and sleeping disorder, as was the proportion of patients with more than one benzodiazepine prescription for both anxiety and sleeping disorder. In fact, researchers note, benzodiazepines disappeared from the Netherlands� top 10 most prescribed medications and were among the top 10 medications with the steepest decrease in number of prescriptions. Notably, the authors found no increase in the use of alternative treatment for anxiety using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Implications

• A policy measure can affect drug prescribing.
• The authors conclude that physicians have room to reduce benzodiazepine prescribing.