Trends in the Concomitant Prescribing of Opioids and Benzodiazepines, 2002−2014
Open accessAbstract
Introduction Although many clinical guidelines caution against the combined use of opioids and benzodiazepines, overdose deaths and emergency department visits involving the co-ingestion of these drugs are increasing. Methods In this ecologic time series study, the IMS Health Total Patient Tracker was used to describe nationally projected trends of patients receiving opioids and benzodiazepines in the U.S. outpatient retail setting between January 2002 and December 2014. The IMS Health Data Extract Tool was used to examine trends in the concomitant prescribing of these two medication classes among 177 million individuals receiving opioids during this period. The annual proportion of opioid recipients who were prescribed benzodiazepines concomitantly was calculated and stratified by gender, age, duration of opioid use, immediate-release versus extended-release/long-acting opioids, and benzodiazepine molecule. The proportion of patients with concomitancy receiving opioids and benzodiazepines from the same prescriber was also analyzed. Analyses were conducted from April to June 2015. Results The nationally projected number of patients receiving opioids and benzodiazepines increased by 8% and 31%, respectively, from 2002 to 2014. During this period, the annual proportion of opioid recipients dispensed a benzodiazepine concomitantly increased from 6.8% to 9.6%, which corresponded to a relative increase of 41%. Approximately half of these patients received both prescriptions from the same prescriber on the same day. Concomitancy was more common in patients receiving opioids for ≥90 days, women, and the elderly. Conclusions Concomitant prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines is increasing and may play a growing role in adverse patient outcomes related to these medications.
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Previous studies did not examine coprescribing with other sedating medications and focused on overlapping prescription periods.
“Those studies, however, did not examine coprescribing with other sedating medications and focused on overlapping prescriptions periods, which could be the result of prescriptions given to a patient at different times or by different prescribers.”
From Patterns in Outpatient Benzodiazepine Prescribing in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as [36]
Previous studies found that coprescribing opioids with benzodiazepines is common.
“Previous studies found that coprescribing with opioids is common.13,35,36,37”
From Patterns in Outpatient Benzodiazepine Prescribing in the United States (2019) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Hwang, C. S., Kang, E. M., Kornegay, C. J., Staffa, J. A., Jones, C. M., & McAninch, J. K.
- Affiliations
- United States Food and Drug Administration (US)
- United States Department of Health and Human Services (US)
- Corresponding author
- McAninch, Jana K.
- Venue
- American Journal of Preventive Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-08
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 151-160
- ISSN
- 0749-3797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2314214487
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 9 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 25.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- American Journal of Preventive Medicine (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- appointment to the Research Participation Program
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
- Keywords
- opioid prescribing, benzodiazepine prescribing, opioid overdose, extended-release opioids, prescribing trends, elderly patients, women
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Analgesics, Opioid, Benzodiazepines, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Practice Patterns, Physicians', Drug Prescriptions, Drug Overdose, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
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