https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/892983
As attention remains focused on opioid abuse, another drug epidemic rages outside the spotlight: inappropriate prescription of benzodiazepines.
In an editorial published in the February 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Anna Lembke, MD, Jennifer Papac, MD, and Keith Humphreys, PhD, from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, point out that from 1996 to 2013, the number of adults who filled a benzodiazepine prescription rose from 8.1 million to 13.5 million, an increase of 67%. During roughly the same time (1999-2015), deaths from benzodiazepine overdose increased from 1135 to 8791.
“Despite this trend, the adverse effects of benzodiazepine overuse, misuse, and addiction continue to go largely unnoticed,” they write.
Concurrent opioid use figured in three quarters of the overdoses, “which may explain why, in the context of a widely recognized opioid problem, the harms associated with benzodiazepines have been overlooked,” the editorialists state. They cite data showing that coprescription rates nearly doubled between 2001 and 2013, going from 9% to 17%.
Of particular concern is benzodiazepine use among the elderly, who are especially vulnerable to adverse effects, including an increased risk for falls, fractures, motor vehicle accidents, impaired cognition, and dementia. Professional societies in several countries, including the American Geriatrics Society, have issued guidelines recommending against prescribing benzodiazepines to these patients, as has the Choosing Wisely International campaign, which aims to reduce inappropriate and low-value care.
Nevertheless, “[p]rescribing to older adults continues despite decades of evidence documenting safety concerns, effective alternative treatments, and effective methods for tapering even chronic users,” Donovan T. Maust, MD, MS, and coauthors wrote in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society in 2016. Other researchers have found that clinicians often are unaware of the dangers these drugs pose to seniors, or believe they have no other therapeutic options.
Now a new observational study of older adults in the United States, Canada, and Australia confirms that, despite a modest decline in benzodiazepine prescriptions in this population, “use remains inappropriately high — particularly in those aged 85 and older — which warrants further attention from clinicians and policy-makers,” the authors write.
Jonathan Brett, MBBS, from the Medicines Policy Research Unit at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues published their findings online February 12 in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
The authors used prescription claims data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Ontario (Canada) Drug Benefit Program, and the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to analyze annual incident and prevalent benzodiazepine use among people 65 years of age or older between January 2010 and December 2016. The entire cohort included 8,270,000 people.
They observed a significant and linear decline in prevalent benzodiazepine use, defined as people with at least one prescription claim for a benzodiazepine during a given calendar year, in all three countries during the period studied. In the United States, it declined from 9.2% to 7.3%; in Ontario, Canada, it declined from 18.2% to 13.4%; and in Australia, it declined from 20.2% to 16.8%.
Incident use, defined as a new prescription in a given year for someone with no previous history of benzodiazepine use, also declined in the United States, going from 2.6% to 1.7%, and in Ontario, going from 6.0% to 4.4%. In Australia, incident use changed only slightly and nonsignificantly, going from 7.0% to 6.7%.
In all three countries, rates of incident and prevalent use were highest among women, Brett and colleagues write. In Australia and Ontario, prevalent use was highest among patients 85 years of age or older, but “decreased with advancing age in the U.S. VA population.”
Interesting the time frames they looked at among people 65 years of age or older between January 2010 and December 2016 . In Jan 2011 the first baby boomer turned 65 and 10,000/day turn 65 since then andDespite this trend, the adverse effects of benzodiazepine overuse, misuse, and addiction continue to go largely unnoticed,” they write. Concurrent opioid use figured in three quarters of the overdoses, “which may explain why, in the context of a widely recognized opioid problem
So there is little/few OD’s from benzo alone… so they have to put into the equation that opiates were involved… again … no suggestion that these OD could have been intentional as in SUICIDES ? Is this another study that culled the data and the time frames to prove a preconceived conclusion ?
Filed under: General Problems
This is Double–Speak. Suddenly, and after admitting a Decline, now they are stating that Benzos we’re found in the Opiate Overdoses? I can’t receive a prescription for Any benzos, (even with a Diagnosis of an ANXIETY disorder). Also, I can’t receive a prescription for AMBIEN, (the one I did, was an Imposter), and Totally Worthless. What I have posted more times than I can count, is that All of the medications needed for my diagnosis, (TWO), have been covertly TWISTED into Toxic-Ineffective MYSTERY–MEDS. Somehow, the Truth in Labeling Doesn’t Apply When It comes to poor people on Dissed–ability, and the elderly stuck-public Nursing Homes, (where they are given some antidepressant to keep them quiet. WAKE-UP. HOW MUCH MORE INFO DOES IT TAKE BEFORE PEOPLE GET-IT ? The truth is that they don’t want people with chronic-illness to exist, especially those of us who benefit, and require the only medications proven to work. What’s Worse is that They have an Agenda to accomplish, it’s called HORIZON 2020, with their own stated challenge being ” HOW TO ELIMINATE ALL OF OUR RIGHTS BY THEN. EU-US CORROBORATION. We are witnessing the evolution of a TOTALITARIAN System who only benefit the Global Elite.
Why did they prescribe them in the first place? Medicines are helpful! These regulations are reckless!
This IS my country but I don’t recognize it. I have PTSD as well, which has been exacerbated beginning with Obamas’ Reform, secrecy, unusual paranoia from others, deadly poisons masquerading as authentic, and a “healthcare” leader suggesting that I COULD BE ASSASSINATED. I have contacted lawyers political ” representatives”, and public legal firm, who said my rights are a philosophical question, as are other Americans. I don’t know how a president could take an oath to uphold the Constitution only to covertly take away the rights of people on disability and the elderly.
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks told Amy Goodman in a interview in Russia. Severely And Dangerously Mentally ill people are running the country/world. I tell my friends if anything happens to me, it’s parts of the gov. MK-ULTRA, Agenda 21. I’m a targeting individual. They Are Very Wealthy and Influential SADISTS
My life, or lack thereof, has been nothing more than filled with terror, increased first-time side effects. The lies, secrecy, psychological and physical punitive nature coming down from government following “the reform”, is a never-ending series of events, which would be laughable if not for the fact that it’s so deadly. I’ve noticed from past history, that something of this magnitude,(like 911), is used as a distraction,(disturbing as it is), to push through unprecedented changes-which under any other circumstances, would never have occurred. Dazzled and confused, shock & awed, along with countless other assaults on our bodies and psyches all happening simultaneously, are planned to disorient us because it works. Also, because it’s strategic and the mass media keeps quiet and distorts the truth, we don’t know until it’s here. Bottom Line is, Once people allow a Government to determine, measure, and Decide who, what, and how much is enough, or not at all, on another humans Body, it means we don’t own and have rights over ourselves, children, even our own Animals. Before I lose my right to free speech; I already have had important letters disappear, and my computer crash w/o explanation, I need to say what is happening. I’ve been reluctant to share many times but now it’s so bad with–what is going on with the “medications”, I May Not have the Ability or Opportunity soon.
When will this terror stop regarding those of us whom are responsible patients ? ??
I suffer from RSD, CRPS ,NERVE DAMAGE, STENOSIS, SCIATIC AND LOSS OF BLADDER CONTROL. IVE HAD MY PAIN MEDS TAKEN BY PAIN MANAGEMENT AND GIVEN METHADONE ,5MG FOR PAIN ONCE A DAY.
Iam now bedridden. I am prescribed lorazepam for anxiety and PTSD by my physichiatrist.
I would have not made it this far if not for my lorazepam taken responsibly.
Iam 54yrs old and now disabled .
I really am unable to take much more government regulations .
This is not my country
Rebecca Morgan-Estock