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http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

Professor C Heather Ashton

→ Many patients are keen to withdraw from long term hypnotic treatment but are unable to do so because of withdrawal syndromes.

→ There is a great deal of information on hypnotic withdrawal programmes based on the work of Professor Heather Ashton and colleagues.

→ Gradual withdrawal if possible for most patients and use of psychological treatments with withdrawal has been shown to be more effective than CBTi while maintaining patients on their sleeping tablets.

→ Short acting drugs such as temazepam or z-drugs may need to be reduced to the lowest available dose and then converted to equivalent doses of diazepam to facilitate gradual withdrawal.