Study Highlights Need for More Scrutiny of Benzodiazepine Prescribing

While opioid abuse has been the subject of much discussion as well as government initiatives in recent months, a new study suggests that misuse of another class of drugs, benzodiazepines, may not be getting the attention it deserves. The study, published online last week in the American Journal of Public Health, found that the amount of prescription benzodiazepines dispensed from 1996 to 2013 had tripled. And the rate of drug overdose deaths in which benzodiazepines were involved, either alone or in combination with other drugs or alcohol, increased in that period from 0.58 to 3.07 per 100,00...