Prescription of Benzodiazepines by General Practitioners: Characteristics of Prescribing Trend and Implementation of an Online Educational Program

Portugal has the highest benzodiazepine utilization compared to other European countries. The high utilization of benzodiazepines has been a concern due to reported side effects of long-term use and dependence. Also, these data demonstrate that doctors are possibly choosing an inadequate treatment to manage anxious and depressive syndromes. This research aims to develop and implement in primary health care units an online educational program, following a cluster randomized study design; to study the impact of this educational program for changing general practitioner\'s benzodiazepine prescription pattern; to analyze of barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the e-PrimaPrescribe program.