Prevalence, prescribed quantities, and trajectory of multiple prescriber episodes for benzodiazepines: A 2-year cohort study

• 1.3% of benzodiazepine users received consecutive overlapping prescriptions.
• Multiple chronic conditions increased the odds of consecutive overlapping prescriptions.
• Questionable prescribed quantities can be screened by consecutive overlapping prescriptions.
• Over half of those patients repeated overlapping prescription episodes in the subsequent year.

BackgroundLittle is known about the use of multiple prescribers for benzodiazepines, which might reflect fragmented patient care and increases the risk of hospital admission for drug dependence or poisoning. Therefore, we aimed to identify the prevalence, prescribed quantities, and trajectory of multiple prescriber episodes for benzodiazepines.MethodsWe conducted a 2-year cohort study of 1178,361 recipients aged 0–74 years using a large health insurance claims database in Japan. We quantified multiple prescriber episodes for benzodiazepines occurring in ambulatory care settings in a baseline and subsequent year by (1) counting the number of unique providers within a 12-month period, (2) calculating the maximum number of unique providers within a single month, and (3) identifying consecutive overlapping prescriptions of over 30 days duration.ResultsAmong 58,314 patients with a benzodiazepine prescription during the baseline year, 282 (0.5%) filled prescriptions from four or more providers within a 12-month period, 439 (0.8%) filled prescriptions from three or more providers within a single month, and 757 (1.3%) filled consecutive overlapping prescriptions. The odds for multiple prescriber episodes were significantly higher among patients with multiple chronic conditions. Consecutive overlapping prescriptions had the best accuracy to detect patients with potentially questionable prescribed quantities as well as to predict those with multiple prescriber episodes in the subsequent year.ConclusionsThese results highlight the need for pharmacists to increase their involvement in prescription oversight and for health insurance agencies to implement a prescription monitoring program to screen for patients with multiple prescriber episodes for benzodiazepines.