Very few would be unaware of the consequences... it’s a basic tenet of medicine - after all, along with alcohol withdrawal (and because of similar mechanisms) i

Very few would be unaware of the consequences... it’s a basic tenet of medicine - after all, along with alcohol withdrawal (and because of similar mechanisms) it’s one of the few withdrawals that can actually kill you (along with steroids). Again that’s terrible practice but more often than not, given the prevelance of Benzo knowledge and specific requests from patients, some people end up giving them away (similarly to antibiotics for viral infections). It’s bad medicine but when GPs have 20 minutes for a consult and patients are more and more demanding... corners are cut when harm is considered minimal (ie regular low level Benzo dosing). For example, probably 20-30% of elderly patients in hospital are on temazepam on arrival. They’re taking 10mg every night. That should never happen, but it does all the time.