While several surveys have shown that patients in non-psychiatric hospital departments frequently receive anxiolytics or hypnotics during hospitalization, and also receive discharge prescriptions for these drugs, as yet none has investigated the start of intake of these drugs during hospitalization in conjunction with an assessment of all types of psychiatric disorders. Therefore, we studied 728 patients in medical, gynecological, and surgical departments of two non-university general hospitals in Austria for the prevalence of anxiolytic and hypnotic drug use during hospitalization as compared to discharge prescriptions for such drugs. Altogether, 50.4 % of all admitted patients were treated with anxiolytics or hypnotics during their stay in hospital, and 42.8 % of those who had not taken such drugs before admission. Of the patients using these medications during hospitalization, 26.1 % also received discharge prescriptions. The significant associations between psychiatric variables and both drug use during hospitalization and prescriptions at discharge, suggest that anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs are used aptly. However, considering that about half of the patients suffering from substance abuse disorders received discharge prescriptions, the risk of continued substance abuse must not be neglected. Overall, fewer patients received anxiolytics or hypnotics at discharge than had used them before admission.
