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Benzodiazepine use in all alcohol consumers predicts use of opioids in patients 20 years later—a follow‐up study of 13 390 men and women aged 40–42 years
Author(s) -
Skurtveit Svetlana,
Furu Kari,
Bramness Jørgen G.,
Tverdal Aage
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.1616
Subject(s) - medicine , medical prescription , pharmacoepidemiology , odds ratio , cohort , benzodiazepine , cohort study , norwegian , demography , pharmacology , receptor , linguistics , philosophy , sociology
Purpose To evaluate the effect of the consumption of benzodiazepines at age 40–42 years on prescription of opioids later in life. Methods A cohort of 6707 men and 6683 women aged 40–42 years reported no use of analgesics in health surveys in 1985–1989. This cohort was linked to the Norwegian prescription database (NorPD) and their prescriptions of opioids during 2004–2006 were analysed. Low–high, moderate–high and high prescription frequency of opioids were defined as at least 6, 12 or 16 prescriptions during January 2004–December 2006. Non‐steroid anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were used as comparators. Results The unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) for low–high prescription frequency of opioids for men and women using benzodiazepines were 3.8 (95%CI 2.5–5.7) and 3.4 (2.6–4.4), respectively, as compared with non‐users. After adjustment for alcohol, smoking habits and socio‐economic variables, the ORs were lowered for both sexes: 2.6 (1.7–4.0) in men and 2.5 (1.9–3.3) in women. The adjusted OR for those with high prescription of opioids was higher for both sexes: 4.5 (2.4–8.5) in men and 3.7 (2.4–5.7) in women. A stratified analysis revealed no relationship between benzodiazepine use and later low and moderate prescription frequency of opioids among teetotallers. The adjusted ORs for low–high prescription frequency NSAID use for men and women using benzodiazepines were 1.6 (1.1–2.4) and 1.6 (1.3–2.0), respectively. Conclusion In this study population, a history of benzodiazepine use raised the chance of being prescribed opioids later in life among those who also used alcohol. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.