Opioid Users Who Take Benzodiazepines Incur Excess Risk for Overdose-Related Death

Risks associated with benzodiazepines can be magnified when they are used in combination with other sedating drugs, such as opioids. In this case-cohort study, investigators evaluated the association between benzodiazepine prescriptions and risk for drug-overdose death (either unintentional or intentional) in 430,000 U.S. veterans who also received opioid analgesics.

At least one benzodiazepine prescription had been obtained by 27% of the study group from 2004 to 2009. Benzodiazepine recipients were more likely to have been hospitalized for mental illness or substance use disorder and to have received diagnoses of substance use disorder or mental illness (e.g., anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder). Overall, 2400 veterans in the opioid coho…