Comparing state, regional, and local variation in concurrent opioid and benzodiazepine use

In 2015, prescription opioid-related overdoses resulted in over 20,000 deaths (CDC, 2018), and almost 30% of them involved the concurrent use of benzodiazepines (NIDA, 2017; Saunders et al., 2012). Benzodiazepines are central nervous system depressors, so their concurrent administration increases the risk of severe respiratory depression and subsequent death associated with opioids by two to three-fold (Dowell et al., 2016; Park et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2017).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - August 7, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Inmaculada Hernandez, Meiqi He, Yuting Zhang Tags: Short communication Source Type: research