A national study found rising sedative-hypnotic prescribing before the pandemic as well as changes during it.
The analysis included more than eight million adults identified with insomnia in Korean insurance records from 2010–2022. It compared observed prescribing with predicted patterns across medication groups, ages, and sexes. Antidepressants showed larger pandemic-period departures from predicted levels than non-benzodiazepine hypnotics in several comparisons.
Diagnostic codes may miss or misclassify insomnia, and a prescription is not confirmed ingestion. Pandemic timing coincided with many changes in health, access, and care. Changes across drug classes cannot all be attributed to benzodiazepines.
Forensic summaries should distinguish a pre-existing trend from a deviation around an event. The study describes population prescribing, not a measured rise in dependence, impairment, or overdose. It does not determine what a particular patient took or why an individual prescription changed.
Source reviewed: Trends in Sedative Hypnotic Prescription Among Insomnia Patients A Nationwide Cohort Study From 2010 (PMC12865212). Forensic applications above are interpretive analysis of the supplied paper.
Related reading: Earlier Opioid and Hypnotic Prescribing Was Associated With Gabapentin Initiation; Etomidate–Midazolam Versus Propofol–Ketamine in Patients With Reduced Ejection Fraction.