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Physicians’ beliefs and attitudes about Benzodiazepines : a cross-sectional study
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Background: In 2015, Portugal was the OECD country with the highest reported consumption of BZD. Physician’s perceptions and attitudes regarding BZD are main determinants of related prescription habits. This study aimed to characterize beliefs and attitudes of Portuguese physicians regarding the prescription, management challenges, benefits, risks and withdrawal effects of BZD. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study with online data collection through anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Physicians registered with the Portuguese Medical Association were invited to participate through direct e-mail message. Physicians were asked to give their opinion (using a 5-points Likert scale) regarding the prescription of BZD, their benefits and risks in the management of insomnia and anxiety, the possible adverse effects of chronic use and alternative non-pharmacologic approaches. Descriptive statistics were used and groups were compared through logistic regression. Results: A total of 329 physicians participated in the study (56% family physicians). Mean age was 44.10 ± 15.2 years, with 19.03 ± 14.9 years of clinical experience. Fifty eight percent of participants were female. Physicians reported BZD’s negative impact on cognitive function (89%), association with road traffic accidents (88%) and falls (79%). Also, 58% shared the belief that chronic use is justified if the patient feels better and without adverse events. Although 68% reported to feel capable of helping patients to reduce or stop BZD, 55% recognized difficulties in motivating them. Compared to other medical specialists (altogether), family physicians were significantly more aware about the adverse effects of BZD and considered that chronic use may not be justified. Conversely, more family physicians expressed concerns about their skills to motivate patients engaging in withdrawal programs and to support them during the process. Conclusion: Our results show that physicians’ awareness about risks of BZD chronic use is adequate though their attitudes and self-perceived skills towards promoting BZD withdrawal can be improved. Interventions in primary care are needed to capacitate physicians to better motivate patients for BZD withdrawal.
Descrição
© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Palavras-chave
Benzodiazepines Physicians Beliefs Attitudes
Contexto Educativo
Citação
BMC Family Practice (2019) 20:71
Editora
BioMed