Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. There are hardly any studies carried out in Pakistan on the usage of benzodiazepines at the level of community.
This research was aimed to determine the frequency of benzodiazepine use, along with its associations with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics among community dwelling adults, residing in two urban settlements of Karachi, Pakistan.
We performed a cross sectional study from August to December , in 2 areas of Karachi, namely Garden and Sultanabad. We followed the systematic sampling strategy to randomly select the households, with an adult of either sex and of age 18 years or more. Data collection was carried out through interview, using a pre-tested questionnaire, with items on socio-demographic position, medical history and benzodiazepine use.
The adjusted logistic regression model revealed that increasing age, location, female sex, unemployment and psychiatric consultation were associated with increased likelihood of benzodiazepine use. We believe the unregulated over-the-counter sales of benzodiazepines and social conditions might be playing a role in this high consumption of benzodiazepines in the community.
After the discovery of chlordiazepoxide in , benzodiazepines are among the most widely used drugs in the general population [ 1 - 6 ].
