opioid

Benzodiazepines, a class of anti-anxiety drugs, are commonly-prescribed medications with the potential for abuse, addiction and overdose. Sound familiar? The parallels to the opioid epidemic are apparent; some physicians have taken to calling it “our other prescription drug problem” as they warn of potential dangers.

American patients in the rural South are more likely to receive opioid prescriptions than patients in the urban North, according to two new studies from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

While the nation’s ongoing opioid epidemic is often discussed as a white issue, new research indicates that prescription opioid use in black adults is just as high.