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Joan M. Cook, PhD; Tatyana Biyanova, PhD; Randall Marshall, MD

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Recently we reported a study of prescribing patterns of benzodiazepines to elderly patients, using data from in-depth semistructured interviews with physicians.¹ The main finding was that none of the physicians believed that benzodiazepine use was a serious clinical problem in older adults, contrary to all major academically generated guidelines on the subject. In fact, the majority minimized the potential adverse effects of benzodiazepines, while also expressing pessimism about their ability to discontinue use of these medications successfully in long-term users. In addition, we identified an unexpected prescribing pattern using the same methods as described herein.

This study used content analysis,² a common inductive qualitative analytical technique that involves generating, refining, and condensing themes that appeared in the interviews through a systematic iterative process. The institutional review board of the University of Pennsylvania approved this study.

An unexpected pattern emerged when . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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