These sedatives are considered a safe and effective treatment, but their long-term use can lead to addiction. Furthermore, there are certain side effects attached to them, including daytime drowsiness and a "hung-over feeling," increasing risk of automobile accidents.
They can also make breathing problems worse and can lead to falls in the elderly.
When used with alcohol, benzodiazepines can be dangerous, and overdoses can be serious.
In 2013, overdoses from the class of drugs made up 31% of the 23,000 prescription drug overdose deaths in the US. However, little was known about benzodiazepine prescribing trends or fatalities.
To further investigate, the researchers, led by Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, looked at data from 1996-2013, using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and multiple-cause-of-death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
They found that the number of adults who filled a benzodiazepine prescription increased by 67% during the study period, which spanned 18 years; it went from 8.1 million prescriptions in 1996 to 13.5 million in 2013.
And for those adults who filled a prescription, the average quantity that was filled during each year more than doubled from 1996-2013.
Furthermore, the overdose rate increased four-fold, from 0.58 deaths per 100,000 adults in 1996 to 3.14 deaths per 100,000 adults in 2013.
"We found that the death rate from overdoses involving benzodiazepines, also known as 'benzos,' has increased more than four-fold since 1996 - a public health problem that has gone under the radar," says Dr. Bachhuber. He adds:
"Overdoses from benzodiazepines have increased at a much faster rate than prescriptions for the drugs, indicating that people have been taking them in a riskier way over time."