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Objectives: Benzodiazepines are effective and safe drugs for treatment of insomnia, anxiety, epilepsy and muscle spasm, but there is also a potential for harmful use, abuse and addiction. Even though these drugs are used extensively, have been on the market for 50 years, and quite a few reports have been published on risk factors and patterns of use, the basic epidemiological parameters of use, such as incidence, prevalence, mean volume used and duration of use have not been documented in Norway. The aim of this study was to describe these basic pharmacoepidemiological parameters of benzodiazepine use. Methods: Data were drawn from the Norwegian prescription database with an observation period of 5 years and 10 months between

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