Although opioid abuse and related mortality rates have received a wealth of media coverage lately, new research suggests that another commonly prescribed drug should also be raising concerns: Overdose mortality for benzodiazepine, the psychoactive class of drugs that include Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, increased significantly between 1996 and 2013, according to a review of CDC cause-of-death data published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The number of adults filling benzodiazepine prescriptions increased by 67 percent from 1996 to 2013, according to the research. The amount of prescriptions filled by each adult increased as well, from 4.1 percent to 5.6 percent over the study period.
While overall rates of overdose deaths linked to the drug seem to have stabilized in recent years, they remain more than five times higher than at the beginning of study period. Additionally, certain minority groups are seeing overdose rates continue to grow, leading the authors to conclude that interventions to reduce benzodiazepine's use and improve its safety are necessary.
Additionally, though opioid abuse and benzodiazepine prompt concerns separately, the two types of drugs also produce negative outcomes for patients when taken in combination with one another, according to a 2014 report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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