Opium in its many forms is readily available across America, from the dirt cheap to the most costly pure form. While that availability has led to an alarming increase in opioid-related deaths, another form of tranquility-inducing drug is also claiming more lives than ever.
Prescription drugs developed to reduce anxiety (primarily benzodiazepine prescriptions) have proliferated since 1996, a study led by a team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found. The study examined data from 1996 to 2013.
Prescriptions written for such drugs as Valium and Xanax have steadily increased, from 4.1 percent of U.S. adults to 5.6 percent in 2013. With the prescription increase, deaths from overdoses of those drugs also rose alarmingly, from .58 per 100,000 adults in 1996 to more than three per 100,000 today.
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
