An administrative study associated prior benzodiazepine use with more postoperative opioid dispensing in previously opioid-naive patients.
The analysis covered several soft-tissue hand procedures during 2011–2021. Patients with a benzodiazepine prescription in the ninety days before surgery had greater adjusted opioid amounts filled and higher odds of new persistent opioid utilization. The adjusted odds ratio for persistent use was 1.48, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.44–1.52.
Claims capture prescribing and dispensing rather than exact consumption. Anxiety, pain experience, procedure selection and other unmeasured differences can remain after adjustment. Persistent filling is not synonymous with opioid use disorder, intoxication or overdose, and a preoperative prescription does not establish simultaneous use on every postoperative day.
For a perioperative prescribing opinion, reconstruct actual overlap, intended duration and follow-up rather than relying on a database category. The association can identify a group needing closer review, but does not prove that benzodiazepines caused prolonged opioid use or that every subsequent prescription was inappropriate.
Source reviewed: Concurrent Perioperative Benzodiazepine and Opioid Utilization in Opioid Naive Patients Undergoing S (PMC13065632). Forensic applications above are interpretive analysis of the supplied paper.
Related reading: Endometriosis Claims Study Described Opioid Escalation and Sedative Co-Prescribing.