dailycaller
Steve Birr
Vice Reporter
1:03 PM 02/16/2018
[excerpt]
http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/16/deaths-triple-anxiety-pills-opioids/Deaths attributed to a combination of anti-anxiety medication and opioid painkillers are rising rapidly in the Chicago area, claiming hundreds of lives in 2017.
Officials in Cook County, Ill., say addiction to benzodiazepine medications like Xanax, Valium and Klonopin appear to be increasing in the region. Benzodiazepines are a class of medication commonly prescribed to treat anxiety conditions that can slow a user’s breathing, particularly when mixed with an opioid medication. A youth rehab network run by Gateway says roughly one in four patients now have abuse problems with a benzodiazepine, up from only one in 10 in 2013, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Cook County Medical Examiner Ponni Arunkumar says the deadly mixture of prescription opioids and medications like Xanax are causing deaths attributed to benzodiazepines to spike at an alarming pace. Deaths from the anti-anxiety drugs have tripled in the region since 2015, claiming 333 lives last year.
