Physicians with beliefs about long-term harms of benzodiazepine are less likely to prescribe it

Despite the continuing growth of benzodiazepine (BZD)-related overdoses, BZD prescription rates have held constant. Much is unknown about how a doctor’s own beliefs about BZD use and potential harm to patients might influence their willingness to prescribe the drug. Using a Medicare database, researchers identified primary care providers who had prescribed a BZD in 2017 and surveyed a random sample […]

Hospices vary widely in prescribing of “comfort kit” medications

When a person nearing the end of their life enters hospice care, their hospice agency’s doctors may prescribe a “comfort kit” of small amounts of medications that their caregivers can give them in case of urgent, distressing symptoms such as severe anxiety, agitation, delirium, nausea and more. They may also get other prescriptions as their hospice care goes on. But […]