# Promoting benzodiazepine cessation through an electronically-delivered patient self-management intervention > **NIH VA I01** · VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS · 2021 · — ## Abstract Background: Long-term use of benzodiazepine medication has been increasing sharply inside and outside of VA, raising the risk of cognitive decline, falls, and overdose among patients. A self-directed benzodiazepine tapering intervention known as EMPOWER was shown effective in a non-VA clinical trial, and within VA there is significant interest in tailoring it to and providing it for Veterans. Significance: Although often useful as short-term medications, when taken for extended periods benzodiazepines carry risk of cognitive decline and other brain damage, falls and other accidents, benzodiazepine dependence and opioid-benzodiazepine overdose (VA Pharmacy Benefits Management Academic Detailing Service, 2017). This is major concern within VA, which prescribes benzodiazepines to over 350,000 Veterans a year, 2/3 of whom take them long-term (i.e., 3 months or more) (VA Pharmacy Benefits Management Academic Detailing Service, 2017). Innovation: Because the EMPOWER intervention was paper-and- pencil based, it would be useful to convert it to an electronic version that worked on smart phones, tablets, and/or desktop computers. Accordingly, the proposed project intends to convert EMPOWER to electronic format and to tailor it to the needs and preferences of the Veteran population. Specific Aims: Aim 1: Tailor a promising non-VA benzodiazepine cessation intervention (EMPOWER) to Veterans and simultaneously convert it from paper-and-pencil to electronic format. Aim 2: Conduct a randomized clinical trial of the effectiveness of the tailored, electronic intervention (EMPOWER-ED) on VA primary care patients’ benzodiazepine cessation/reduction and functional outcomes. Aim 3: Conduct a budget impact analysis to estimate the costs of implementing the EMPOWER-ED throughout VA. Methodology: This conversion and tailoring will be an iterative process that the project team will conduct via focus groups comprising Veterans, VA primary care providers, and VA operational partners. When the revised intervention, called EMPOWER-ED (for EMPOWER “Electronically Delivered”), is fully designed and has been successfully beta-tested by Veterans, its effectiveness will be evaluated in a randomized clinical trial with 170 Veterans who have been on benzodiazepines for at least 3 months. The primary hypothesis of the study is that those receiving EMPOWER-ED will be significantly more likely than controls to cease benzodiazepines entirely, and, to reduce their dose by at least 25%, at 6-month follow-up. The secondary hypothesis is that Veterans receiving EMPOWER-ED will also experience fewer anxiety symptoms, better sleep quality, and overall health/quality of life at 6-month follow-up. A supplemental analysis of benzodiazepine use only will be conducted using VA databases at 12 months to evaluate whether changes identified at 6 months persist over time. The VA operational partners of the project team (Pharmacy Benefits Management, Psychotropic Drug Safety Initiative, and Office of ... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10242617 - **Project number:** 5I01HX002714-02 - **Recipient organization:** VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS - **Principal Investigator:** Michael Anthony Cucciare - **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** VA - **Fiscal year:** 2021 - **Award amount:** — - **Award type:** 5 - **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2024-08-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10242617 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10242617, Promoting benzodiazepine cessation through an electronically-delivered patient self-management intervention (5I01HX002714-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10242617. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*