Low-value Care

Association of New Perioperative Benzodiazepine Use With Persistent Benzodiazepine Use

Abstract: This cohort study examines the frequency of use and persistent use of benzodiazepines among patients undergoing major and minor surgical procedures.

Publication: JAMA Open

Date Published: June 3, 2021

Author(s): Jason D. Wright, MD; Jacob C. Cogan, MD; Yongmei Huang, MD, MPH; Ana I. Tergas, MD, MPH; Caryn M. St. Clair, MD; June Y. Hou, MD; Fady Khoury-Collado, MD; Allison Gockley, MD; Melissa Accordino, MD; Alexander Melamed, MD, MPH and Dawn L. Hershman, MD

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To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.