“America is well aware of its opioid epidemic, but there’s a hidden crisis brewing with prescription sedatives such as Xanax and Valium, a new review warns.
Known as benzodiazepines, overdose deaths involving these medications have increased exponentially over the past decade, in lockstep with a steady growth in prescriptions for the drugs, the review authors found.
Use of these drugs has become too casual in modern society, said review author Dr. Anna Lembke. She’s an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with the Stanford University School of Medicine.
“These are highly addictive and potentially lethal drugs, and many people don’t know that,” Lembke said. “Sadly, most physicians are also unaware of this and blithely prescribe them without educating their patients about the risk of addiction.”
Read more at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-02-xanax-valium-america-drug-crisis.html
Source: MedicalXpress.com – February 22, 2018
See related article: Why These People Took Drug Combinations That Nearly Killed Them available at: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59kwgz/lethal-drug-combinations-with-opioids-heroin
See related article: Benzodiazepines: Our Other Prescription Drug Epidemic available at: https://www.statnews.com/2018/02/22/benzodiazepines-drug-epidemic/
