Benzo Basics
Resources
Taper Scheduler
Refer Patient
Welcome to Benzo Basics!
Clinicians may wish to reduce and or stop prescribing benzodiazepines (BZD) for some of their patients. However, especially for patients who have been prescribed a BZD for years, this can seem a daunting task for both clinicians and patients. Think of this resource as a BZD resource clearinghouse that pulls together information from a variety of sources to help make these conversations slightly easier, organized into the three following sections:
Resources
This section covers: BZD basics for both clinicians and patients; information about alternative strategies for insomnia and anxiety (the most common indications for BZD); and information about tapering.
Taper Scheduler
Doing all the math involved in a potential taper can be challenging during a brief return visit. This taper scheduler begins by generating a 12 step taper over 24 weeks, which you can then customize for your patient.
Refer Patient
For patients that you think may benefit from referral to specialty mental health care, this takes you to the SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator.
This website was created as part of a project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA045705) to Donovan Maust, MD. For questions or comments, please contact Charity Hoffman, PhD, MSW (project coordinator; charityh@med.umich.edu)
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