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. 2021 Jun 21;13(6):e15816. doi: 10.7759/cureus.15816

Table 2. Summary of significant findings of major studies conducted evaluating benzodiazepine use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Author Site of Study Study Period Data Collection Sample Size Findings
Lapeyre-Mestre et al. [50] 2020 France March 17th, 2020 – May 31st, 2020 Data collected from French Addictovigilance Network n=231 Significant misuse and abuse of benzodiazepines reported (with alcohol or other psychoactive substances).
Downs et al. [55] 2020 USA January 5th, 2020, to May 12th, 2020 Texas Prescription Monitoring Program. n=18000 Significant decrease associated with both benzodiazepine prescriptions and prescribers. 
Niles et al. [56] 2020 USA January 1st, 2019, through May 16th, 2020 De-identified results from all medMATCH specimens with clinician-provided prescribed drug information n= 44211 There was a 4% decrease in non-prescribed benzodiazepine use (p<0.02) 
Jones et al. [57] 2020 USA  January 2019-May 2020 Data from the IQVIA Total Patient Tracker database n=5,128,721 The results of the study showed additional 450,074 (95 % CI:189,999 to 710,149) unique patients were dispensed benzodiazepines compared to forecasted estimates
Gili et al. [58] 2020 Italy  March 22nd, 2020 – May 18th, 2020 Hair Sample collected from 30 patients (aged 18–48 y; 17 males; 13 females) from urban areas of central Italy for analysis n=30 The percentage of samples positive for benzodiazepines increased from 16.7% (5 cases) in the period before the lockdown to 53.3% (16 cases, p < 0.01) during the lockdown and remained high after the lockdown (43.3%, 13 cases, p < 0.01).
Yu et al. [61] 2020 Canada January 1st to May 31st 2019 Vs January 1st to May 31st, 2020 Prescription refill information from independent community pharmacy n=365 There was significantly more frequent dispensing of benzodiazepine tablets (z= 2.402, p=0.016) in the first five months of 2020 compared to those of 2019.
McCarthy et al. [63] 2020 USA March 7th, 2020 - March 30th, 2020. Data collected from Confirmed coronavirus infection n=213 New benzodiazepine initiation was 3.3% among discharged patients.