Linking a Survey of Clinician Benzodiazepine-Related Beliefs to Risk of Benzodiazepine Prescription Fills Among Patients in Medicare

As aspiring healthcare professionals, we read your study with great interest. We are interested in learning more about the benzodiazepine (BZD) crisis that plagues our country. As we reviewed your study, we noticed that a substantial number of patients were not willing to taper off their BZD prescriptions. We are curious to whether there is an opportunity to limit the detrimental effects of the BZD crisis through additional educational resources for both patients and providers. Additionally, most primary care clinicians reported that continuous BZD usage has increased potential harms. Given these findings, is there pressure on primary care clinicians to meet the patient’s requests, while also prioritizing patients’ health?

Furthermore, we took notice that the patient population was composed exclusively of Medicare beneficiaries with Part D coverage. We are curious as to whether study findings are generalizable beyond the patient population (i.e., aged 65 and over)? Furthermore, could the relative health status of this patient population warrant increased BZD? We are interested knowing if your team plans to expand your study to include a greater number of diverse patient population groups (e.g., those with commercial insurance, Medicaid coverage)?