Opioids and benzodiazepines together
An opioid and a benzodiazepine should not be prescribed together unless there is a clear, discussed reason - the combination raises overdose risk.
The silent should: An opioid and a benzodiazepine should not be prescribed together unless there is a clear, discussed reason — the combination raises overdose risk.
In our analysis of de-identified U.S. psychiatric records, this step was missing 14% of the time it should have happened.
It is fixable: the best-performing clinics miss it only 0% of the time — a 14-point gap that is about the system, not the patient.
This page is information to help you ask questions — it is not medical advice, and you should never start, stop, or change a medication on your own. Bring these questions to your clinician.
Questions for your doctor the next time you see them
Copy a line and ask it — these are questions, never instructions to change treatment.
- I'm prescribed both an opioid and a benzodiazepine - is that combination safe for me?
- Can we review whether I still need both, and can I have naloxone on hand?
The evidence
In our analysis, taking a benzodiazepine and an opioid together was linked to a 3.7x higher rate of overdose compared with an opioid alone.
This page is informational and not medical advice. It describes care patterns across a population, not your situation. Bring these questions to a clinician who knows you.
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