Answer Addiction

Tag: benzodiazepines

  • Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    A new report also shows the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions has sharply risen over an 18-year timeframe.

    New statistics suggest that the overdose death rates involving the prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines have risen dramatically over the past decade, and approach statistics for heroin – and synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths.

    A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 1999 and 2017, the number of women between the ages of 30 and 64 who died from an drug overdose involving benzodiazepines – a family of drugs used for anxiety – rose 830% during that time period.

    The CDC also found that prescriptions for benzodiazepines rose by 67% during the approximate same time period.

    Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, can prove effective in treating conditions like anxiety or insomnia if taken on an intermittent basis over a period of a few weeks. But with long-term use, they also carry an increased risk for overdose if taken with opioids.

    Their ability to calm or sedate the user through an increase in the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain, which can be dangerous if taken with drugs that slow breathing like opioids or even alcohol. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in 2018 that 30% of opioid-related overdoses also involved benzodiazepines.

    The overall impact of benzodiazepine on overdose mortality rates paints a more alarming picture when observed over the time period covered in the CDC’s report. According to their research, overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines among women in the aforementioned target age group rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1997 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 – a jump of 830%. 

    The number of benzodiazepine prescriptions also saw a startling increase during the study time frame, rising from 8.1 million adults in the United States who filled a prescription for the medication in 1996 to 13.5 million in 2013.

    Prescriptions began to drop or level off after 2013, but overdose deaths maintained their steady climb: in 2016 alone, there were 10,685 overdose deaths attributed to the drug, while in 1999, the US total as just 1,135.

    Commentary in the February 2018 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that education about the dangers of the drug and alternatives should be paired with national efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

    Informing doctors and patients alike about their dangers, and the effectiveness of alternative treatments for anxiety and insomnia, could help to bring the numbers reported by the CDC down.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Stone Sour Guitarist: Maintaining Sobriety While Touring Is “Difficult”

    Stone Sour Guitarist: Maintaining Sobriety While Touring Is “Difficult”

    In a new interview, Josh Rand discussed the ups and downs of being in early recovery while out on tour with the band.

    Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand revealed that staying sober on tour has been “more difficult” than he ever expected. Earlier this year, Rand sat out the Canadian leg of Stone Sour’s Hydrograd tour in order to receive treatment for alcohol and Xanax abuse.

    During a recent interview with Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, Rand admitted that adjusting to life on the road hasn’t been easy.

    “Europe, for me, was really trying,” he said. “When I was touring in the U.S., it was easy for me to have structure, and that’s one thing that I learned on both of these tours—the U.S. one and then the European summer tour—I’m a guy that needs structure.”

    He added that while he faced “temptation” a number of times while in Europe, he made it through.

    “I have a great support group within the band and the people that work for us, and then my fiancée came out midway through, so that was the extra support,” he noted. “But it was a little bit more difficult than what I thought going into it.”

    Rand said that “nobody had any idea” that he’d been on the prescription anxiety medication, Xanax, since 2010. (He’d been prescribed the drug for anxiety related to flying.)

    “And then, over the course of the last couple of years, I started drinking, and when we started touring, I was basically day-drinking,” he told 103.3. “But [I was] not drinking to get messed up, but just to maintain, I guess. Or to be able to cope, to have this buzz.”

    Eventually, Rand found himself feeling “horrible and miserable” and left his bandmates shortly after the ShipRocked cruise in mid-January to get treatment.

    In a June interview with Loudwire, Rand observed that while maintaining sobriety on the road remains difficult, the decision to get sober was something of a no-brainer: “In January, I just hit a wall with things, felt just terrible and decided that it was in my best interest and the band’s best interest to step aside and get stuff sorted,” he said. 

    The guitarist further detailed his decision, claiming that it didn’t take an intervention to get him into treatment. Instead, he made the decision himself.

    “To be quite honest, everybody had went through check-in at the airport and they were already through when I made the decision that I wasn’t going to fly to Canada and I was flying back to Des Moines,” he told Loudwire. “I had just spun into a funk, depression thing. I just wasn’t happy and so that’s why I made the decision. I just felt like every day was a burden. I was just like, ‘This is crazy. I know I don’t have to feel like this.’”

    Following treatment, however, Rand has found solace in his exercise routines (“Sometimes I’ll go to the gym twice”) as the band continues to find success.

    “We have a very open communication with the five of us and truly a brotherhood,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • The 1975’s Frontman Matty Healy: I Thought I Was A "Good Drug Addict"

    The 1975’s Frontman Matty Healy: I Thought I Was A "Good Drug Addict"

    The now-clean frontman of the band The 1975 reveals he was struggling with heroin addiction last year.

    Matty Healy, frontman of rock band The 1975, revealed in an interview with Billboard that he was under the influence of drugs for a large portion of 2017 but has since cleaned up his act.

    He first realized he may have a problem when he embarked on a benzodiazepine-fueled ego trip, ranting at his bandmates after they discovered he was smoking heroin again.

    “Listen, everyone has to get onboard because I’m the f—ing main deal,” Healy recalled telling his fellow band members, who have known him since they were in high school. “If you want the songs, we’re just going to have to get on with it.”

    He told them he planned to detox after they start recording their third album. But the next morning, he had regrets over the way he acted towards them.

    “I realized that was absolutely f—ing bulls—,” he told Billboard. Finding his bandmate George [Daniel], Healy told him “I should go to rehab.”

    Healy went to a Barbados rehab in November and stayed for seven weeks. While he is now clean of heroin, he recalls a time when he would be able to dump the habit for weeks at a time only to relapse when he was off on his own. Healy thought he was a “good drug addict,” but realized that the addiction could very easily cost him everything.

    “People had started to lose respect for me, but not an irredeemable amount,” he said.

    To hold himself accountable, he’s promised to take a drug test every week in front of his bandmates.

    Healy reflects on his struggles with heroin in the song “It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You” on the band’s upcoming album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, and it’s definitely not a song meant to romanticize drugs.

    “I don’t want to fetishize it, because it’s really dull and it’s really dangerous,” he told Billboard. “The thought of being to a young person what people like [William S.] Burroughs were to me when I was a teenager makes me feel ill. … I still risked it.”

    Since getting clean of heroin, he’s also realized that he’s wasted time chasing things he thought would make him happy, but this pursuit does nothing for your own self-esteem.

    “I thought it would be like, ‘Ooh, a bit of gold, a Rolls-Royce’ — I never had a Rolls-Royce — ‘drugs with a pop star, shag that pop star’ — I didn’t shag any pop stars — all of the trappings of a music video,” he reflected. “And what you realize is the pursuit of happiness is this Sisyphean thing for most people. Thinking that the goal is to be happy is a bit mad. It’s more about fleeting moments of joy and knowing that life is hard.”

    While he is clean of heroin, Healy still chooses to smoke marijuana.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could Anti-Anxiety Meds Be The Next Prescription Drug Epidemic?

    Could Anti-Anxiety Meds Be The Next Prescription Drug Epidemic?

    “We have this whole infrastructure set up to prevent overprescribing of opioids and address the need for addiction treatment. We need to start making benzos part of that.”

    An increase in the number of drug overdose deaths among individuals who used benzodiazepines has some state and local health officials concerned that the drugs could be at the center of a new prescription drug crisis.

    Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, are commonly prescribed for anxiety or insomnia, and in the past two decades-plus, the number of prescriptions written for these medications has risen from 8 million to 14 million adults in the United States. But when taken in combination with prescription or illicit opioids, the likelihood of death can increase as much as tenfold, prompting medical and government officials alike to propose greater attention to their use.

    According to an article in LiveWellNebraska, a joint publication by BlueCross BlueShield Nebraska and the Omaha World-Herald, the number of adults nationwide filling a prescription for benzodiazepines has increased two-thirds between 1996 and 2013—a period of time which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also saw the sales of prescription opioids quadruple in the U.S. 

    LiveWellNebraska also noted that while prescriptions for benzodiazepines appear to have leveled or declined slightly in the years—and opioid prescriptions have dropped by a fifth since 2013—the level of prescribing for benzodiazepines still remains higher than rates in the mid-1990s.

    Taken on their own or in combination with painkillers, the drugs carry health risks that range from debilitating withdrawal to possible fatality. Research from the CDC found that 23% of individuals who died from an opioid overdose also tested positive for benzodiazepine.

    Reaction from the medical community has been divided between support for benzodiazepines, which have shown to be effective at relieving serious cases of anxiety and insomnia.

    The International Task Force on Benzodiazepines, which counts scientists, researchers and pharmacologists in its number, has formed in response to what has been perceived as backlash against the drugs, despite their potential for positive impact.

    But other health officials and medical professionals have stated that increased focus on the potential health concerns from benzodiazepines may possibly prevent a widespread epidemic like the opioid crisis.

    “We have this whole infrastructure set up now to prevent overprescribing of opioids and address the need for addiction treatment,” said Dr. Anna Lembke, a researcher and addiction specialist at Stanford University. “We need to start making benzos part of that. What we’re seeing is just like what happened with opioids in the 1990s. It really does begin with overprescribing.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Combining Opioids And Benzos Increase Overdose Risk?

    Can Combining Opioids And Benzos Increase Overdose Risk?

    The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

    When used in combination with opioids, benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium can make an individual five times more likely to overdose, a new study published in JAMA Network Open has determined. 

    The study found that benzodiazepines, which are often prescribed for anxiety, can increase the likelihood of overdose when used with opioids, especially in the first 90 days they are used together.

    The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

    The new study looked at data from over 71,000 people on Medicare Part D. Researchers divided patients into two groups: those who had taken only opioids prior to overdosing and those who had both opioids and benzodiazepines. Researchers “subdivided [the second group] by the cumulative number of days the patients had taken an opioid with a benzo,” Forbes states.

    The results showed that for individuals taking both forms of medication, overdose risk was five times higher during the first three months when compared to those using only an opioid.

    For the 90 days after the first three months, the risk of overdose doubled. After six months, the risk decreased to the same likelihood as taking only opioids. 

    “Patients who must be prescribed both an opioid and a benzodiazepine should be closely monitored by health care professionals due to an increased risk for overdose, particularly in the early days of this medication regimen,” lead study author Inmaculada Hernandez, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, said in a press release.

    A 2017 study published in the BMJ found that from 2001 to 2013, simultaneous opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions in 315,000 privately insured patients increased by 80%. 

    As such, one of the factors that researchers considered was the number of clinicians involved with a patient. They found that the more clinicians there were prescribing drugs to a single patient, the greater the risk of overdose.

    “These findings demonstrate that fragmented care plays a role in the inappropriate use of opioids, and having multiple prescribers who are not in communication increases the risk for overdose,” said senior study author Yuting Zhang, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, according to Forbes.

    This study is not the only one of its kind, as the relationship between opioids and benzodiazepines and the associated risks has been studied previously.

    Additionally, earlier in 2018, the FDA published a warning about the potential for respiratory depression issues when taking both medications together, since both depress the central nervous system.

    View the original article at thefix.com