Abouttwo-thirds of long-term users of benzodiazepines in the population are
able to discontinue this drug with the aid of supervised programmes for
tapering off. Little is known about the long-term outcome of such
programmes, and they have never been compared with usual care. After a
15-month follow-up of a randomised controlled trial comparing such a
programme with and without psychotherapy with usual care, we found
significantly higher longitudinal abstinence rates in long-term
benzodiazepine users who received a benzodiazepine tapering-off programme
without psychotherapy (25 out of 69, 36%) compared with those who received
usual care (5 out of 33, 15%; P=0.03).