Prescription characteristics associated with drug overdose risk among adults prescribed benzodiazepines: a cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Drug overdose (OD) deaths in the U.S. continue to rise. After opioids, benzodiazepines (BZD) are the medication most commonly involved in prescription overdoses, yet OD risk factors among those prescribed BZD are not well understood. Our objective was to examine characteristics of BZD, opioid, and other psychotropic prescriptions associated with increased drug OD risk following a BZD prescription.

Methods

We completed a retrospective cohort study using a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage. We identified patients with a BZD prescription ("index") claim between 1 April 2016 and 31 December 2017. In the 6 months pre-index, those without and with BZD claims comprised incident and continuing cohorts, which were split by age (incident <

SUBMITTER: Maust DT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10199543 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature