“The first reason why people keep taking it is because of complaints,” says Van der Borst. “You really get withdrawal symptoms and so you have to gradually reduce them.” Still, phasing out is important. The effect diminishes over time and the longer people use the substances, the more addictive they become.
Little time
According to Van Der Borst, the workload of general practitioners is another reason. Patients would like to continue with it themselves and GPs have little time to start a good phasing-out process. And so they often repeat it, also because people themselves indicate that they really want to continue. Some people have been using them for a long time. “They used to be prescribed for longer and so there is also a group that has been using them for longer.”
The fact that the drugs are prescribed at all has to do with the fact that they work really well in the beginning. “You fall asleep almost immediately and it dampens the anxiety,” says Van Der Borst. “It is a means to really relieve people of their burdens.”
Adverse effects
The rules are now stricter than in the past. For example, they may no longer be written out so easily and not in too large quantities. To do even more, time is needed, so that general practitioners can properly guide these people. It also has adverse effects. “It can make you drowsy, it can make you depressed and even cause you to have concentration problems,” says Van Der Borst.
GPs already have little time, but it is necessary to solve the problem. According to Van Der Borst, it would be good to come up with a clear plan that provides good tools for general practitioners, so that they spend less time on this.
