Across the nation, numerous public health officials and academics are imploring the FDA to add a "black box" warning listing the potential risks of taking opioids alongside benzodiazepines, anti-anxiety drugs, according to The Washington Post.
Here are four insights:
1. Forty-one health officials from different state and health departments submitted a petition to the FDA on Feb. 22.
2. The petition's advocates say medical professionals have both a moral and professional obligation to be transparent about the risks and exercise caution when prescribing patients the medications.
3. A recent study found benzodiazepine overdoses accounted for nearly 33 percent of the 23,000 deaths attributed to prescription drug overdoses in the United States in 2013. American Journal of Public Health published the study last week.
4. Experts claim when the drugs are taken together, they severely depress the respiratory systems, causing some patients to stop breathing. Health officials want the FDA to include a warning, which says using the drugs simultaneously "reduces the margin of safety for respiratory depression and contributes to the risk of fatal overdose, particularly in the setting of misuse."
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