Benzodiazepine계 약물의 사용과 의존성

Use of and Dependence on Benzodiazepines

The world-wide use o f benzodiazepine increased steadily until the late 1970’s. Since then, as the abuse of and dependence on benzodiazepine becam e public knowledge, the prescription of benzodiazepine by physicians has becom e conservative. In Korea, however, the num ber of prescriptions seems to be continuously increasing. Recently, the dependence and withdrawal symptoms with the therapeutic dose o f benzodiazepine has been noted to be as severe and dangerous as those in chronic abuse with larger doses. The severity of benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal sym ptom s seems to be related to the p h arm acokinetic characteristics o f the drug. The previously most popular one was diazepam , and lorazepam is most popular these days. A uthor has also described the nature o f benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal symptoms, the techniques for withdrawing benzodiazepine and guidelines recom m ended by experts for the prevention of benzodiazepine dependence, i.e.，avoiding unnecessary chronic treatment.