OBJECTIVES: Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are primarily employed to manage insomnia and anxiety disorders. However, the hypnotic effects of BZDs are markedly reduced within a few weeks of regular use. Therefore, BZDs are not recommended for more than 4 weeks. This study aims to compare the quality of sleep in patients continuing BZDs and those deprescribed with BZDs.

METHODS: A prospective interventional study was carried out for a period of seven months from September 2018 to April 2019 in the Department of Psychiatry of a tertiary care hospital, Bangalore. All patients who were prescribed with BZDs were included for the study. A total of 77 patients met the inclusion criteria and were recruited to be part of the study. All relevant data was collected using a well-designed patient data collection form. Quality of sleep amongst patients was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) before deprescribing and during a 2 month follow-up period.

RESULTS: Upon analysis of data, a significant improvement in sleep quality was identified in both the BZD deprescribed and continuing group. The number of patients having good sleep arose from a baseline value of 15 (25.9%) to 32 (55.1%) patients within the deprescribed group and from 3 (18.8%) to 8 (50%) in continuing group. Upon applying Wilcoxon’s signed rank test, the Z score was calculated to be 5.541 (p value <0.05) for the deprescribed group and 3.082 (p value <0.05) for continuing group.

CONCLUSIONS: A significant improvement in sleep quality was identified in the deprescribed group and continuing group. However the BZD continuing group was unable to outperform the deprescribed group. This may be attributed to the individual tolerance that develops to the hypnotic effects of the drug.

KEYWORDS: BZD, Pittsburgh sleep quality index.