Risk Factors for Concurrent Use of Benzodiazepines & Opioids among Individuals Under Community Corrections Supervision

The use of heroin and prescription opioids has increased over the past decade. The concurrent use of opioids with other depressants such as benzodiazepines increases the risk of overdose death compared with use of either drug alone. This study examined factors associated with concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines in a criminal justice sample in the state of Alabama.

• Concurrent use was detected in 11.5% of the sample. 
• Concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines or use of either drug alone was associated with being White, female, married, prescribed psychiatric medications, having seen a physician in the past two years, cannabis use, and having a drug-related offense. 
• Concurrent users were more likely to be unemployed or disabled and have received counseling, and less likely to have completed college, live with relatives or friends, have a history of hallucinations, or have an offense against a person relative to nonusers.

While significant overlap of risk factors exists between individuals with concurrent use versus sole use of opioids or benzodiazepines, individuals with concurrent use generally have more social dysfunction than individ

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By: Cropsey KL1, Stevens EN2, Valera P3, Brendan Clark C2, Bulls HW4, Nair P2, Lane PS2.

• 1University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, 1720 7th Ave S., Birmingham, AL 35294-0017, United States
• 2University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, 1720 7th Ave S., Birmingham, AL 35294-0017, United States.
• 3Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, 722 W. 168th St., New York, N.Y. 10032, United States.
• 4University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Psychology, 1720 2nd Ave S., Birmingham AL 35233, United States.
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