OBJECTIVES: Long term use of benzodiazepines is associated with tolerance, side effects and dependence. Deprescribing is the process by which potentially inappropriate medications that might be causing harm or no longer beneficial are either tapered, stopped, discontinued or withdrawn with the intend of increasing the patient’s Quality of Life (QOL). This study aimed to assess the QOL of patient’s deprescribed with BZDs.

METHODS: A prospective interventional study was carried out for a period of seven months from September 2018 to April 2019in 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 life (QOL) was assessed before deprescribing and during a 2 months follow-up period using the WHO-QOL Bref scale.

RESULTS: On applying paired t test statistic to the baseline and follow up scores of both BZD deprescribed and continuing group. The results were found to be statistically significant between the two groups in all four domains (i.e, physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environmental health). The deprescribed group demonstrated higher scores in all domains compared to the continuing group with a mean t value of 9.063 and p value <0.05.

CONCLUSIONS: All four domains in the deprescribed group showed a higher mean score than the continuing group. Hence, it can be deduced that an increase in QOL is seen in those patients that have been deprescribed with BZD when compared to those continuing the medication.

KEYWORDS: Deprescribing, WHO-qol Bref, BZD