We read a recent article in your journal regarding the use of benzodiazepines in Portugal. According to the authors, only eleven different benzodiazepine types were prescribed to patients.
We were surprised that not a single patient was being prescribed with any of the other nine types of benzodiazepines which are still commercially available in Portugal. We also wondered about the other five types of benzodiazepines which have been withdrawn from the market in Portugal. It is not clear how the authors excluded the present and past abuse of these particular substances. We were also surprised to see that patients had not carried out urine or blood tests to confirm the drug use. What a patient tells us in a questionnaire is always some kind of subjective information that should, whenever possible, be cross-checked with objective information.

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