Teens and young adults who are treated for sleep disorders with benzodiazepines such as Xanax may be at a higher risk of overdose, according to a new study.
For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers examined how often young people with sleep disorders had a drug overdose in the months after starting a prescription sleep medication.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, benzodiazepines were involved in 12,290 overdose deaths in 2020, up from 6,872 in 2011 and 1,135 in 1999. However, the researchers say the risks of drug overdose in youth populations prescribed a benzodiazepine treatment for insomnia was unclear.
The researchers found young people using benzodiazepines for common sleep conditions had an increased risk of overdose during the six months after starting treatment compared with other prescription sleep medications, including trazodone, hydroxyzine, and z-hypnotics.
“The risk of drug overdose with benzodiazepine treatment is an important safety consideration when treating adolescents and young adults,” says coauthor Greta Bushnell, an assistant professor at the Rutgers University School of Public Health.
“We hope these results can inform prescribing decisions and encourage close monitoring in this young patient population.”
Using a commercial claims database covering privately insured young people ages 10 to 29 years old, the researchers identified nearly 90,000 people newly receiving benzodiazepine or an alternative prescription treatment for a sleep disorder. They then examined drug overdoses in this group in the six months following the start of treatment.
The researchers also found the risk of overdose was highest among young people starting treatment with benzodiazepines who recently were prescribed an opioid.
“Given the frequent co-use of benzodiazepines with other substances, it is important to discuss with young people the potential associated harms,” says Bushnell, who is a faculty member at the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Sciences at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (IFH).
“Because other substance use may be unknown to the prescriber, adolescents and young adults should be screened for substance use and a history of overdoses before treatment.”
Bushnell says continued research is needed to determine how specific benzodiazepine treatment details, such as dosage, alter the risks of overdose.
Additional coauthors are from Columbia University, New York University, and Rutgers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse supported the work.
Source: Rutgers University
