Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make the 1988 CSM guidelines concerning the prescription of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs of two to four weeks mandatory for future patients prescribed those drugs.

The guidance from the Committee on Safety of Medicines regarding the recommended duration of use for benzodiazepines and Z-drugs was incorporated into the terms of the licences for these products and reflected in the product information which consists of the Summary of Product Characteristics for healthcare professionals and the patient information leaflet supplied in each package of the medicine.

In making a prescribing decision, clinicians must weigh the potential benefits of the medicine in the condition being treated, against any risks of possible side effects in the individual patient, taking into account all warnings and precautions described in the product information.

Clinicians can use their clinical judgement to prescribe a medicine to patients if they consider it to be in the patient’s best interest. This is defined as “off label” prescribing and refers to the use of a medicine outside the terms defined in the product licence. If a clinician decides that in their clinical opinion a patient will benefit from “off label” use of a medicine they are free to prescribe it. However, if a clinician does prescribe in this manner they are responsible for the patient’s care and the consequences of the treatment.