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Prescribing drugs of dependence in general practice
Part B - Benzodiazepines
Last revised: 03 Dec 2019
To provide GPs with examples of responses to specific inappropriate and maladaptive patient requests for benzodiazepines.
Before the actual consult, there are a number of things that practices can do to decrease the incidence of inappropriate and maladaptive requests for medications:
Alprazolam and temazepam are frequently used in the scenarios below, but may be substituted for other benzodiazepines. Some responses are specific for alprazolam or temazepam as both medications have undergone changes to their Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) scheduling.
Table A.1 gives some examples of responses to patient requests and includes a rationale for the response. Note that all responses are examples only and should be adapted to individual clinical circumstances.
Table A.1.
Sample responses to inappropriate requests for medications
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