Long-term use of hypnotics in Japan

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This study aimed at revealing the current status of long-term hypnotics use and the risk factor accounting for long-term use among Japanese, with the use of large-sized health insurance data. Data were derived from medical fee receipts of approximately 330,000 people enrolled in multiple health insurance associations in Japan. We selected adult patients who were prescribed at least one hypnotic for the first time between April 2005 and March 2008. Follow-up was extended to March 2009. To reveal the risk factor of long-term use of hypnotics, we performed Cox regression analyses with time-dependent variables in those patients who were followed up for up to 12 months. A total of 3,981 patients (M:2,382 F:1,579, 40.3plus or minus12.4) were prescribed hypnotics first time during the study period. The present findings indicate that insomnia comorbid with depression patients were likely to continue to be prescribed hypnotics for a longer period of time.