“Concerns over the risks of co-prescribing benzodiazepine and opioid drugs has 41 state health officials petitioning the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to place a new black box warning on both classes of pharmaceuticals to warn patients and doctors of the potential risks with concomitant use.
“Only a few labels and medication guides contain specific information on the dangers of concurrent use of these two classes of medications; none contain black box warnings,” the officials write in their petition submitted Monday, calling for all labels for opioids to read:
“WARNING: CONCURRENT USE WITH BENZODIAZEPINES [replace with OPIOIDS on benzodiazepine labels] REDUCES THE MARGIN OF SAFETY FOR RESPIRATORY DEPRESSION AND CONTRIBUTES TO THE RISK OF FATAL OVERDOSE, PARTICULARLY IN THE SETTING OF MISUSE.”
Source: RAPS.org – February 22, 2016