Essay: Benzodiazepines and overdose deaths

Upon reading Roni Caryn Rabin’s article in The New York Times, most would agree Americans are significantly susceptible to yet another treatment turned deathly by abuse. It has been common knowledge for several decades that certain opioids used for painkillers are extremely addictive leading to fatalities. However, drug overdose deaths from anti-anxiety drugs specifically, have now increased to account for almost 30% of all overdose deaths in 2014 (Rabin). This is no small contribution, considering the amount of overdose deaths have increased by 137% since 2000 (“Prescription Drug Overdose Data”). Therefore, the public should be more aware that anxiety medication is not something to be taken so lightly.
As discussed in the article, the most tangible cause of this issue, lies in the 67% increase in filled prescriptions for anxiety, insomnia, and panic disorders since 1996 (“Brief History of Anxiety”). This inherently leads to conclusion that diagnoses for these conditions are becoming more common. Anxiety is a fairly new disorder, only being recognized formally in the 1980s. Within ten years, benzodiazepines were being used to treat this disorder. The late medicalization of anxiety disorder can be attributed to a lack of detectability, as it is a relatively subjective illness that can be easily misconstrued and confounded with other conditions. In addition, the symptoms are abstractly defined by emotions, fears, and worries that the average person might not consider out of the ordinary due to highly situational factors (“A Brief History”). Therefore, it is likely that the increased number in recognized cases of anxiety treated with benzodiazepines are due to greater awareness of the disorder. Now, primary care physicians can reach out to people who would have formerly been just considered nervous or worrisome personality types, and one in ten Americans take a form of mood-altering drug (Slomsky).
On the other hand, little has been proven towards the true efficacy of benzodiazepines in the treatment of cases of anxiety. Certainly, working as a depressant in the nervous system, these drugs will relax the patient, but this is a very short term solution. Extended use or even an intermittent but regular dose has been shown to result in dependence and reduced efficacy. This provides a biological explanation for the current death rates regarding these drugs, but the social factors may be the clinching elements rendering benzodiazepines abuse. For example, a study conducted in Canada where the regulations on these drugs are much less stringent than the U.S., women aged 20-44 were determined twice as likely to be given prescriptions for benzodiazepines while having identical physical symptoms to the male counterparts of the study, and when both men and women were prescribed, the women received longer treatments (Currie).
Although the data collected on American overdose deaths have yet to show any significant difference by gender, these trends may be imminent without steps toward prevention. Its possible that these women experiencing anxiety symptoms were subject to the “second-shift” on a daily basis, where they work a full-time job during the day in addition to childcare and housekeeping upon coming home in the evening. This lifestyle is quite common in the U.S. and undeniably considered a chronic stressor. It often causes mothers to worry about providing for their families monetarily and domestically or being out of control of daily life, which directly feeds into the symptoms of anxiety disorders.
Furthermore, adults suffering from anxiety disorder do not have time or emotional resources to take on the sick role. Single parents or simply adults employed in demanding low-wage labor cannot afford to take time off for a non-drug approach to work through a bout with mental illness and must rely on benzodiazepines. Unfortunately, the more dependence and exposure to these substances, the more debilitating the side effects become. Now the patient is at risk for further consequences of caused or deepening of existing depression and impaired memory and reasoning, which are rarely recognized by the patient (Slomsky). This is the point when they are likely to deviate from the directed dosages given by their physician either unintentionally or due to suicidal motives, another side effect of benzodiazepine abuse (Rudd). To remedy this issue, more mental conditions and disorders must be addressed as priority conditions for adults to fully take on the sick role, receiving highly directed care and stringently regulated medication.