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Abstract
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apan has one of the highest prescribing rates of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs (ie, zopiclone, eszopiclone, and zolpidem) among high-income countries.
The Japanese Government has been criticised for its failure to address the rampant duplicate prescribing of these drugs through the practice of doctor shopping, whereby patients visit various health-care facilities with false declarations of not having been served by other medical institutions to obtain multiple prescriptions.
Unfortunately, Japan lacks a nationwide electronic health record system, and doctors are therefore unable to track whether a patient has visited other medical institutions.
The high number of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs available through prescriptions or illegal product diversion sales could contribute to their high level of misuse. Reasons for the elevated consumption of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs in Japan are unclear, but could be due to inexpensive medical care under the universal health insurance system, the absence of a family doctor system, and the ease of access to health care, which means that doctor shopping cannot be prevented. Various efforts have been made in multiple countries to prevent such doctor shopping, one of which is the sharing of patient prescription information. However, these attempts are ineffective if they are restricted to specific regions or if the targeted medical institutions are not mandated to participate...
Language: en |