Open Access<p>Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Reduces Benzodiazepine Anxiolytics Use in Japanese Patients with Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Retrospective Observational Study</p>
Author(s) -
Aiichiro Nakajima,
Ayako Kanie,
Masaya Ito,
Naotsugu Hirabayashi,
Fumi Imamura,
Yoshitake Takebayashi,
Masaru Horikoshi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
neuropsychiatric disease and treatment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1178-2021
pISSN - 1176-6328
DOI - 10.2147/ndt.s263537
Subject(s) - discontinuation , medicine , anxiety , mood , medical prescription , cognitive behavioral therapy , psychiatry , benzodiazepine , anxiety disorder , pharmacology , receptor
Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are prescribed to treat psychiatric diseases. However, many guidelines recommend limiting the use of BZDs because of side effects and lack of evidence regarding long-term efficacy. Moreover, reducing BZDs' use is difficult because of dependency and the severity of withdrawal symptoms. The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for mood and anxiety disorders has been demonstrated. However, there is scant evidence that CBT has effectively reduced BZDs use, especially in Japan, where the BZDs prescription rate is high. Therefore, we sought to examine the impact of CBT on reducing BZDs use in a Japanese psychiatric setting.