Overdose Deaths From Benzodiazepines Have Increased Significantly

Benzodiazepine prescriptions and overdose mortality have increased considerably, according to a new study of nationally representative data.

“Also, among those receiving a prescription, the quantity they received in a given year more than doubled,” said study author Chinazo Cunningham, MD, MS, associate chief of the division of general internal medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System. “Overdoses rose at a faster rate than prescriptions, indicating that people were using benzodiazepines in a riskier way over time.”
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The researchers examined data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and multiple-cause-of-death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 1996 and 2013, they found the percentage of adults filling a benzodiazepine prescription increased from 4.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]=3.8%, 4.5%) to 5.6% (95% CI=5.2%, 6.1%), with an annual percent change of 2.5% (95% CI=2.1%, 3.0%).

In addition, the quantity of benzodiazepines filled increased from 1.1 (95% CI=0.9, 1.2) to 3.6 (95% CI=3.0, 4.2) kilogram lorazepam equivalents per 100000 adults (annual percent change=9.0%; 95% CI=7.6%, 10.3%). The overdose death rate increased from 0.58 (95% CI = 0.55, 0.62) to 3.07 (95% CI = 2.99, 3.14) per 100000 adults, with a plateau seen after 2010.

“Recently, a lot of attention has focused on reducing and improving the safety of prescription opioids,” Cunningham said. “However, to fully address the prescription drug overdose crisis, we need to broaden our approach to also improve benzodiazepine safety.”

She now is developing and testing interventions that aim to reduce the amount of prescription drugs and improve safe prescribing of these medications.

—Mike Bederka

Reference:

Bachhuber MA, Hennessy S, Cunningham CO, Starrels JL. Increasing benzodiazepine prescriptions and overdose mortality in the United States, 1996-2013. Am J Public Health. February 18, 2016 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303061.