How to Ease the Withdrawal of Tranquilizers Among Older Consumers?

Summary

Benzodiazepines (BZD) are widely used to treat anxiety, insomnia, and depression. These drugs can have very serious side effects if they are taken over a long period of time. In addition to stability, memory, concentration, vigilance, and attention impairments, long-term use of BZD is also associated with an increased in hypertension incidence, urinary incontinence, coronary artery disease, and renal complications. There are growing evidences that long-term BZD use causes physical and psychological dependence as evidenced by the withdrawal syndrome.

The recommended strategy by physicians to facilitate the withdrawal of BZD is to gradually reduce the medication, either by replacing the BZD by another with a longer half-life, or by the gradual dose reduction. Unfortunately, the success of such a procedure is low as up to 80% of people who try to quit, relapse due to the intolerance of withdrawal symptoms. Therefore, it is important to find new strategies to overcome the withdrawal difficulties.

The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of a novel psychosocial intervention called PASSE-65+ to facilitate the benzodiazepine withdrawal in the older users, thus providing a new therapeutic tool to physician.

Conditions

• Drug Dependence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychosocial intervention

Based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, the psychosocial intervention (PASSE-65+) is specifically designed to help older BZD users to better manage their withdrawal symptoms, to stop their medication, and to improve their general psychological well-being

BEHAVIORAL

a weekly physician intervention

Informative document + 12 meetings (once a week; 30 minutes) with a physician who will supervise the gradual withdrawal

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Universite du Quebec en Outaouais

  collaborator OTHER

• Université de Montréal

  collaborator OTHER

• Université de Sherbrooke

  collaborator OTHER

• Laval University

  collaborator OTHER

• Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sébastien Grenier, Ph.D. · Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-08-31

Primary Completion

2018-07-31

Completion

2018-07-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations