On November 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), released a report titled “Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use.ā
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is an annual survey sponsored by SAMHSA within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 2021 NSDUH used multimode data collection, with 69,850 respondents aged 12 or older completing the survey in person or via the web. The 2021 report includes selected estimates by race and ethnicity, along with estimates by age group.
The complete report is available here, and information about the misuse of prescription benzodiazepines on pages 19-20.
Defining Terms
In NSDUH, misuse of prescription drugs is defined as āā¦use in any way not directed by a doctor, including use without a prescription of oneās own; use in greater amounts, more often, or longer than told to take a drug; or use in any other way not directed by a doctor.ā
Reported ResultsāTranquilizer or Sedative Misuse
Estimates of the misuse of prescription tranquilizers or sedatives were presented together because prescription drugs in both categories have a common effect on specific brain activity. Prescription tranquilizers include benzodiazepine tranquilizers (e.g., alprazolam, lorazepam, clonazepam, or diazepam products), muscle relaxants, or any other prescription tranquilizer. Prescription sedatives include zolpidem products, eszopiclone products, zaleplon products, benzodiazepine sedatives (e.g., flurazepam and temazepam products or triazolam products), barbiturates, or any other prescription sedative.
Among people aged 12 or older in 2021, 1.7 percent (or 4.9 million people) misused tranquilizers or sedatives in the past year. The percentage was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (2.6 percent or 874,000 people), followed by adults aged 26 or older (1.7 percent or 3.8 million people), then by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (0.9 percent or 225,000 people).
The percentage of people aged 12 or older in 2021 who misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives in the past year was higher among White people (2.1 percent) than among Hispanic (1.3 percent), Black (1.3 percent), or Asian people (0.5 percent). The percentage of people who misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives in the past year was lower among Asian people than among Multiracial (2.5 percent), Hispanic, or Black people.
Reported ResultsāBenzodiazepine Misuse
Among people aged 12 and older in 2022, 1.3 percent (or 3.7 million people) misused prescription benzodiazepines in the past year. The percentage was highest among young adults age 18 to 25 (2.1 percent or 747,000 people), followed by adults aged 26 or older (1.3 percent or 2.8 million people), then by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (0.4 percent of 113,000 people).
The percentage of people aged 12 or older in 2021 who misused prescription benzodiazepines in the past year was higher among White people (1.7 percent) than among Hispanic (1.0 percent), Black (0.9 percent), or Asian people (0.4 percent). The percentage also was higher among Multiracial people (2.3 percent) than among Asian people.
A Focus on Prescribed Physical Dependence (Not Addiction) Is Needed
At Benzodiazepine Information Coalition (BIC), we believe that despite the limitations in the survey methodology, this report reflects our experiences working with this population and emphasizes the importance of investing in research and medical care focused on the long-term harms of benzodiazepines, rather than narrowly concentrating on addiction.
The percentage of individuals misusing benzodiazepines is quite low, especially among certain age groups and ethnicities. Prior analyses, although perhaps not directly comparable to this one, also concluded that benzodiazepine use disorders are rare.
What is common, however, is that a significant percentage of individuals prescribed benzodiazepines will develop physical dependence, requiring specialized medical care and tapers. Even with a taper program, this can lead to severe, painful and protracted withdrawal syndromes in a significant percentage of individuals who are prescribed benzodiazepines beyond a few weeks. While estimates vary, physical dependence and withdrawal impact approximately 40-90% of long-term benzodiazepine patients, with a large minority experiencing withdrawal and going on to suffer from protracted neurological harm after cessation.
Unfortunately, there are significant gaps in medical knowledge about addressing these iatrogenic complications from prescribed benzodiazepines. BIC believes that medicine has an obligation to serve this population, and resources need to be allocated to better analyze the extent of the prescribed physical dependence problem and provide appropriate support.
For more information, visit the SAMHSA Press Release.
You don’t know anything about medications used off label for people who have had brain injuries. no medication is made for anyone with a TBI. the medications do not have the same effects as it does on the general population with no TBI. You don’t have any information on the number of people who were killed by medical workers that can take someone off a medication that don’t have the knowledge they will kill that person. they don’t have any knowledge that you can never let a patient have any with drawl symptoms because that is actual brain damage that is occuring and they will not fully recover from it. it takes at least a minimum of 2 years for someone taking them for a long time and you never take anyone off without having a replacement medication and if the patient has any withdrawl symptoms you immediatly stop the withdrawl and you put them back on the dose they were getting. and you don’t die from alprazalam because no one can get the amount of pills it would take to kill someone. you may go into a coma but you come out with no damage done to your brain. Medical providers kill the person. no TBI person ever dies from alprazalam. I would like to find one person who can prove a TBI person ever died taking alprazalam and wasn’t a recreational drug user instead. what proof do you have on a TBI brain and what it did to a brain using Nuclear Spect Scans because a brain 30 years on a high dose shows there is no damage whatsoever done to the human brain. but you can prove what bamage was done to a person who was murdered by not getting their alprazalam.