Deprescribing Benzodiazepines and Z-Drugs

Every prescriber has the same patient. Somewhere in your panel is a patient on their eighth or twelfth year of a nightly sedative, renewed at every visit, started by someone who is no longer in the picture. You did not begin the prescription. You have never had a method safe enough to end it. Continuing feels wrong. Stopping feels dangerous. Most prescribers oscillate between those two fears, or freeze. A working method, not another reference book. This workbook turns current deprescribing guidance into something you can use during an appointment. It covers benzodiazepines and z-drugs only, and it takes you through the full clinical sequence: distinguishing physical dependence from a substance use disorder, deciding who should be tapered, opening the conversation without losing the patient, building an individualized micro-tapering schedule, prescribing doses smaller than any tablet provides, monitoring between visits, and documenting every decision defensibly.