Hypnotic prescription by GPs is associated with their personal drug consumption but not by their insomnia status.

Hypnotic prescription by GPs is associated with their personal drug consumption but not by their insomnia status. J Sleep Res. 2020 Feb 12;:e12993 Authors: Chambe J, Kobayashi Frisk M, Charton L, Lefebvre F, Will S, Rat C, Bourgin P Abstract French general practitioners (GPs) are known to widely prescribe medications to treat insomnia despite their negative effects. GPs' easy access to self-medication may affect their mental representation of sleep and hypnotics, and subsequently their professional behaviour. Our aim was to examine the association between GPs' personal hypnotic drug consumption habits and their management of patients with sleep disturbances. A randomized sample of Alsatian GPs participated in a survey based on questionnaires including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep in 10 questions to characterize sleep, and an evaluation of their management strategies regarding sleep for both patients and themselves. Two-hundred and forty-nine GPs were included (response rate of 51%). Demographics of the GPs' samples were representative of those of the Alsatian GP population. Fifteen percent of the survey respondents met insomnia criteria. For the management of their own sleep disturbances, 14.3% of GPs were taking hypnotic drugs and 8.7% were taking anxiolytics, with greater drug consumption in the insomnia group. In a multivariate analysis, GPs who personally consumed these medications pre...
Source: Journal of Sleep Research - Category: Sleep Medicine Authors: Tags: J Sleep Res Source Type: research