I-Team: ER Visits Tied to Xanax, Similar Drugs Soar in NYC

[WestVirginiaRebel]

nbcnewyork.com:

A rise in prescription drug abuse involving Xanax and similar anti-anxiety pills in recent years has prompted some doctors in the U.S. to rethink the frequency with which they dole out the prescription.

Between 2004 and 2009, New York City emergency room visits involving Xanax and other anti-anxiety prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines increased more than 50 percent. That's up from 38 out of 100,000 New Yorkers in 2004 to 59 out of 100,000 New Yorkers.

Data from the New York City Department of Health also show benzodiazepines were tied to more than 30 percent of all the city's overdose deaths in 2009, or 3.3 out of 10.9. Nearly all of those overdoses involved multiple drugs, of which benzodiazepine was just one.

Xanax is the most popular anti-anxiety drug in the benzodiazepine family. In 2010, Xanax was America's 11th-most prescribed pill, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

In Louisville, Ky., psychiatrists at the Seven Counties Services network of mental health clinics took the unusual step of halting all Xanax prescriptions. The self-imposed ban has now been in effect for a year.

Dr. Scott Hedges says benzodiazepines are fast-acting when it comes to remedying acute panic attacks, but he says they are not meant to be long-term treatments. Instead, he focuses on more traditional behavioral therapies.

"The problem is, in terms of longer term treatment, there are really much better treatments that have better outcomes than the use of that short-term medication,” Hedges said.

Some Xanax abusers say their panic attacks and anxiety seem more intense after long-term use of the drug.

"Rob," a recovering Xanax abuser who did not want to reveal his identity, said shortly after he started taking the pill he noticed the effects of benzodiazepine were wearing off too quickly and he had to increase his dosage.

"It doesn’t take long before that doesn’t do anything for you and you have to double it or triple it," he said

Like many Xanax addicts, "Rob" says he also abused other illegal drugs at the same time. He often took Xanax pills to alleviate panic symptoms associated with his attempts to quit heroin and other narcotics.

Dr. Jeff Rabrich, who directs the Emergency Medicine Department at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, said he often sees the negative effects of illegal narcotics exacerbated by benzodiazepines.

"The Xanax potentially makes it a much worse overdose. It could turn a relatively mild overdose into something that could be fatal," said Rabrich.

According to practice guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association, doctors should avoid prescribing alprazolam -- the generic name for Xanax -- for patients who have a history of alcohol or drug abuse.

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