Warning against combining benzodiazepines and opioids

The combined use of opioids and benzodiazepines may result in serious adverse effects warns the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US.

The FDA issued boxed warnings (its strongest warning) and patient-focused Medication Guides for prescription opioid analgesics, opioid-containing cough products, and benzodiazepines – nearly 400 products in total – with information about the serious risks associated with using these medications at the same time. Risks include extreme sleepiness, respiratory depression, coma and death.

“It is nothing short of a public health crisis when you see a substantial increase of avoidable overdose and death related to two widely used drug classes being taken together,” highlights FDA commissioner Dr Robert Califf. “We implore health care professionals to heed these new warnings and more carefully and thoroughly evaluate, on a patient-by-patient basis, whether the benefits of using opioids and benzodiazepines – or CNS depressants more generally – together outweigh these serious risks.”

Click here to read the original press release.

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