The duration threshold and sampled population determine what a long-term prescribing percentage means.
The community-psychiatry study found benzodiazepine prescriptions in roughly one quarter of the assessed clinic population. Among benzodiazepine recipients, 93% were prescribed for more than 180 days. Bipolar and psychotic disorders were common diagnoses in the sampled patients.
This percentage is not the prevalence of long-term use in the general population. Prescription duration also differs from confirmed ingestion. The study found no statistically significant associations with selected clinical and demographic characteristics, which does not show that such characteristics never matter.
Retain the denominator when describing the result: nearly all sampled recipients, not nearly all clinic patients, had long-term prescriptions. An individual assessment still needs indication, actual use, benefit, adverse effects and monitoring. Duration alone cannot establish dependence, intoxication or negligent prescribing in a particular case.
Source: PMC11151410, supplied full-text paper. Findings are paraphrased; forensic implications are an interpretation.
Related: A Selective GABA-A Modulator’s Three-Week Trial Cannot Exclude Long-Term Dependence.