Seniors in the Deep South and Rural Western States Prescribed Most Benzodiazepines and Opioids

A University of Michigan (U-M) study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found older male doctors in the South and rural western states are prescribing the most benzodiazepines and opioids to seniors, most of whom are less educated and from areas with lower incomes and at higher risk for suicide, reports Forbes . Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Florida, and Louisiana were the states with the highest prescribing levels. Certain counties in the Deep South and rural western states had three times the level of sedative prescribing as those with the lowest levels. Some primary care physicians prescribed sedatives at a rate more than six times that of their peers, and top prescribers also tended to be high-intensity opioid prescribers. "Taken all together, our findings suggest that primary care providers may be prescribing benzodiazepines to medicate distress," says U-M-Ann Arbor's Donovan Maust. "And since these drugs increase major health risks, especially when taken with opioid painkillers, it's quite possible that benzodiazepine prescribing may contribute to the shortened life expectancies that others have observed in residents of these areas." Maust notes in the single year studied, the 122,054 primary care providers included prescribed 728 million days' worth of benzodiazepines to their customers, at a combined cost of $200 million. High sedative prescription intensity also was tied to more days of poor mental health, a higher proportion of disability-eligible Medicare beneficiaries, and a higher suicide rate at the county level.