Reducing long-term diazepam prescribing in office practice. A controlled trial of educational visits

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Abstract
We conduced a controlled, statewide trial of the efficacy of an educational visit by a physician counselor in the reduction of diazepam prescribing in outpatient practice. A novel aspect of this trial was the provision of a schedule for gradual withdrawal of long-term diazepam users from drug therapy; 51% of visited doctors attempted to withdraw patients from diazepam therapy and 26% utilized the withdrawal schedule. The entire group of 43 visited doctors reduced the rate of long-term diazepam users in their practice by 18% relative to the control groupl the subgroup of doctors who utilized the withdrawal schedule had an even greater reduction of 33%. These results suggest that practicing doctors are concerned with long-term use of diazepam and that the educational visit by another physician is one method for reducing such use.