ArticleJournal of addiction medicine
Evaluating the Impact of Prescribed Versus Nonprescribed Benzodiazepine Use in Methadone Maintenance Therapy: Results From a Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study.
Article in Journal of addiction medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cannabis Use Among Individuals Treated with Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: Correlates, Patterns, and Motivations for Use.Substance use & addiction journal · 2026Article
- Benzodiazepine Use Among Patients Receiving Methadone Maintenance Treatment: A Descriptive Study.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Article
- Examining opioid agonist treatment (OAT) site operations and early signals of change in the first year of British Columbia's drug decriminalization policy: Insights from a provincial survey.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Benzodiazepine Use Among Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: A Narrative Review.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2025Review
- Clinical Outcomes of Benzodiazepine Prescribing for People Receiving Opioid Agonist Treatment: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Observational
- The impact of benzodiazepine exposure on treatment retention in an open-access methadone program: A retrospective cohort study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Article
- Factors associated with opioid overdose during medication-assisted treatment: How can we identify individuals at risk?Harm reduction journal · 2021Article
- Harm reduction in the time of COVID-19: Case study of homelessness and drug use in Dublin, Ireland.The International journal on drug policy · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesBenzodiazepine (BZD) use is common in patients who are engaged in methadone as a treatment for opioid use disorder. BZD prescribing is generally discouraged for this patient population due to the increased risk of BZD dependence and BZD use disorder, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) discontinuation, and opioid-overdose death. However, some patients have concurrent mental health disorders, where BZD use may be clinically indicated. This study evaluates the impact of prescribed BZD on MAT outcomes.
methodsLinking urine drug screening data (UDS) and prescribing information from single-payer health records, we conducted a retrospective Kaplan-Meier analysis between patients using prescribed and nonprescribed BZD with methadone treatment retention as the primary outcome. Data are from a network of 52 outpatient clinics in Ontario, Canada, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2013.
resultsWe identified 3692 patients initiating methadone-assisted treatment for the first time; 76% were BZD-/UDS- (no BZD prescription and <30% screens positive for BZD); 13% were BZD+/UDS-; 6% BZD-/UDS+; and 6% BZD+/UDS+. Using 1-year treatment retention as a primary outcome, patients using nonprescribed BZD (BZD-/UDS+) were twice as likely (adjusted odds ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.27-0.53) to discontinue treatment as those not using BZD (BZD-/UDS-), or those using BZD in a prescribed manner (BZD+/UDS+).
conclusionsOur findings suggest that prescribed BZD can be used during methadone MAT without impacting a patient's retention in MAT, but nonprescribed BZD use is predictive of treatment discontinuation. Importantly, we urge both the physician and patient to seek alternative clinical options to BZD prescribing, due to the potential for developing physical dependence (and BZD use disorder) to BZD and the risks of negative interactions with opioids.
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