ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2021
Prescription fill patterns for benzodiazepine and opioid drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- A 21-year Comparative Study of Prescriptions of Benzodiazepines and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Related Drugs in a Japanese University Hospital.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Research square · 2026Article
- Substance use and treatment utilization patterns of working-age American men who were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Supporting Unhealthy Substance use care Through a whole person Approach and user centered INtegration into primary care (SUSTAIN): Study protocol for a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Article
- Patterns and Emerging Trends in Acute Poisoning with Substances of Abuse Used for Recreational Purposes in Adolescents: A Six-Year Multicentre Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and the use of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine-related drugs in Estonia: an interrupted time-series analysis.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2024Article
- Utilization of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics during the COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- Article
- Benzodiazepine Interference with Fertility and Embryo Development: A Preliminary Survey in the Sea UrchinInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Benzodiazepine Delorazepam Induces Locomotory Hyperactivity and Alterations in Pedal Mucus Texture in the Freshwater GastropodInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Testosterone Prescribing in Texas, 2018-2021.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Article
- Prescribed stimulant medications: Trends in the last decade, pre and post COVID-19 response.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2023Article
- Geographic Trends in Pediatric Psychotropic Medication Dispensing Before and After the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Article
- Trends and Geographic Variabilities in Benzodiazepines Prescription in Primary Care to Older Adults: A 3-Year Population-Based Ecological Study in Portugal.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- A bibliometric analysis of the recent advances in diazepam from 2012 to 2021.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Prevalence and Differences of Depression, Anxiety, and Substance Use Between Chinese College-Age Students Studying in China and America During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Disparities in Long-Term Opioid Therapy.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFMArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCOVID-19 and resulting mitigation measures in the United States (US) brought about limited access to medical care that has been linked to increases in mental health problems, excessive substance use, and drug overdoses. The increase in co-prescription of benzodiazepines and opioids may indicate population-level changes in health behaviors that can be exacerbated by limited access, hence necessitating the tracking of these drugs during COVID-19. We evaluated the impact of the declaration of COVID-19 as a US national emergency on prescription patterns in 2020.
methodsPrescriptions of benzodiazepines and opioids were analyzed using data aggregated on a weekly basis across 38 states over the January 2019-December 2020 period. Data were from Bamboo Health Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and covered all individuals regardless of insurance status. Generalized additive models estimated the effects of the March 13, 2020 declaration on proportion of prescriptions to all controlled substances by comparing volumes before to after the week of March 13 in 2020 (range: January 27-May 24) and comparing this trend to its 2019 counterpart.
resultsWhen comparing the January 27-March 9 period to the March 16-May 24 period in 2020, there was a statistically significant 2.0% increase in the proportion of benzodiazepine dispensations to all controlled substances, and a significant 1.7% mean decrease in proportion of opioid dispensations to all controlled substances. A significant return approaching pre-declaration levels was observed only for opioids (beginning week of May 18, 2020).
conclusionsThe results suggest significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on dispensations of benzodiazepines and opioids across the US. Continued monitoring of prescription trends and maintenance of adequate and accessible access to mental healthcare are important for understanding public health crises related to substance use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.