PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Benzodiazepines, 'z-drugs' increase death risk when taken with opioids

2021-07-16
(Press-News.org) A new study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers of more the 400,000 Medicare patients taking medications for insomnia found that the risk of death is increased when either benzodiazepines or "z-drugs" are taken with opioids.

The study, published July 15 in PLOS Medicine and led by Wayne Ray, PhD, professor of Health Policy at VUMC, compared patients taking these drugs with opioids to comparable patients taking trazodone, another commonly prescribed sleep medication for older patients. The researchers found that those using benzodiazepines had a 221% increase in the risk of death from any cause and those taking non-benzodiazepine hypnotics, or "z-drugs," had a 68% increased risk.

"Our findings indicate that the risks of benzodiazepine-opioid use go well beyond the recognized hazards of overdose. They also suggest that the z-drugs, thought to have better safety than the benzodiazepines, in fact are dangerous when prescribed in combination with opioid pain medications," Ray said.

Benzodiazepines, including brand names such as Restoril, Ativan, and Halcion and the "z-drugs", a type of medication known more commonly under names like Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata, are among the most frequently prescribed medications for older adults.

Trazodone, a medication initially introduced for depression, is often prescribed in low doses for insomnia. Although researchers have speculated about the relative safety of these sleep medications, there is limited relative safety data.

Ray said the study findings could help to fill this data gap and thus lead to changes in both provider behavior and policy.

"Our findings add urgency to efforts to limit concurrent prescribing of benzodiazepines and opioids. They also suggest that targeted warnings are needed to advise older patients and their providers regarding the potential risks of taking z-drugs with opioids," Ray said.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study finds promising therapeutic target for colitis

Study finds promising therapeutic target for colitis
2021-07-16
LA JOLLA, CALIF. - July 16, 2021 - An international research group, led by Jamey Marth, Ph.D., a professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys, has shown that the Neuraminidase 3 (Neu3) enzyme is responsible for the onset and progression of colitis--a chronic digestive disease caused by inflammation of the colon. The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was performed in a model of recurrent human food poisoning previously linked with the condition. The findings represent a scientific advance toward a targeted therapy to help the millions of people worldwide affected by the disorder. "Our new research demonstrates how increased activity of ...

Co-locating contraceptive services and opioid treatment programs may help prevent unintended pregnancy

2021-07-16
Increases in maternal opioid use have led to an almost doubling in the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in the U.S. in the past 10 years. This statistic led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics to call for stepped-up efforts to reduce opioid use during pregnancy, such as ensuring access to contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies among women who use opioids. More than 75% of women with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) report having had an unintended pregnancy, but they are less likely to use effective ...

Galactic fireworks: New ESO images reveal stunning features of nearby galaxies

Galactic fireworks: New ESO images reveal stunning features of nearby galaxies
2021-07-16
A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks. The images, obtained with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), show different components of the galaxies in distinct colours, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the locations of young stars and the gas they warm up around them. By combining these new observations with data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, the team is helping shed new light on what triggers gas to form stars. Astronomers know that stars are born in clouds of gas, but what sets off star formation, and how galaxies as a whole play into it, remains a mystery. To understand this process, a team of researchers has observed various ...

Race, politics divide Americans on sports issues

2021-07-16
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Although some people may yearn for sports to be free of political or racial divisiveness, a new study shows how impossible that dream may be. Researchers found that Americans' views on two hot-button issues in sports were sharply divided by racial, ethnic and political identities. In addition, their opinions on topics unrelated to sports, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, also were linked to their beliefs about the two sports issues. The study analyzed opinions on whether college athletes should be paid and whether it is acceptable for pro athletes to protest ...

3D printed replicas reveal swimming capabilities of ancient cephalopods

3D printed replicas reveal swimming capabilities of ancient cephalopods
2021-07-16
University of Utah paleontologists David Peterman and Kathleen Ritterbush know that it's one thing to use math and physics to understand how ancient marine creatures moved through the water. It's another thing to actually put replicas of those creatures into the water and see for themselves. They're among the scientists who are, through a range of methods including digital models and 3-D printed replicas, "de-fossilizing" animals of the past to learn how they lived. Peterman, Ritterbush and their colleagues took 3-D printed reconstructions of fossil cephalopods to actual water tanks (including a University of Utah swimming pool) to see how their shell structure may have been tied to their movement and lifestyle. Their research is published in PeerJ ...

Ficlatuzumab plus chemotherapy may benefit patients with relapsed/refractory AML

2021-07-16
Bottom Line: The investigational therapeutic ficlatuzumab in combination with chemotherapy showed signs of clinical efficacy in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Blood Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research Author: Senior author Charalambos Andreadis, MD, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and first author Victoria Wang, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at UCSF Background: "Only about half of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will achieve long-term disease control," said ...

Nearly 20 percent of intact forest landscapes overlap with extractive industries

Nearly 20 percent of intact forest landscapes overlap with extractive industries
2021-07-16
Byron Bay (16/7/2021) - A new study from WCS and WWF reveals that nearly 20 percent of tropical Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) overlap with concessions for extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas. The total area of overlap is 376,449 square miles (975,000 square kilometers), about the size of Egypt. Mining concessions overlap most with tropical IFLs, at 11.33 percent of the total area, while oil and gas concessions overlap with 7.85 percent of the total area. IFLs are globally important for conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change. ...

Oncotarget: RAS reversion in colorectal cancer patients treated with bevacizumab

Oncotarget: RAS reversion in colorectal cancer patients treated with bevacizumab
2021-07-16
Oncotarget published "Occurence of RAS reversion in metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with bevacizumab" which reported that a disappearance of RAS mutations in the plasma of about 50% of mCRCs treated with bevacizumab-based chemotherapy has been reported. Using next-generation sequencing and real-time PCR approaches, these authors characterized the primary tumor and paired liver metastases in 28 RAS mutant mCRCs. RAS mutant alleles are at the same percentage in PT and liver metastases in the control group, while a significant reduction of the level ...

Private-public partnership helps to evaluate satellite observations of atmospheric CO2 over oceans

2021-07-16
Hiroshi Tanimoto, Director of the Earth System Division at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, and Astrid Müller together with their international research team, have developed a new method to evaluate satellite observations of XCO2 over open ocean areas, which are currently inaccessible through established validation network sites. In the new approach, a reference CO2 dataset is formulated by combining cargo ship and passenger aircraft observations which were conducted in cooperation with operators of the private sector. (Background) After the Paris Agreement entered into force, commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are being expedited. CO2 is the most important anthropogenically produced greenhouse ...

Using migration data to fine-tune marketing strategies to rural Indian communities

2021-07-16
Researchers from National University of Singapore and Stanford University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that investigates how rural consumers in India shift their expenditures towards branded consumption when they migrate to urban areas. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "The Economic and Social Impacts of Migration on Brand Expenditure: Evidence from Rural India" and is authored by Vishal Narayan and Shreya Kankanhalli. With Covid-19 disrupting work patterns and increased investment in rural employment, many of India's 450 million internal migrants are returning to their villages. Consumer goods companies view this as an opportunity to grow their presence in rural markets, with migrants serving as unofficial brand ambassadors ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Unique videos show how trawling restrictions brings back life to the sea

Whooping cough can be fatal in young infants, experts warn

Knee-d for excellence: New regional training hub keeps surgeons sharp for ageing population

The Lancet: Billions lack access to healthy diets as food systems drive climate and health crises, but sustainable, equitable solutions are within reach, says new EAT-Lancet report

Countries with highest reported levels of hearing loss have lowest use of hearing aids

Early medical abortion at home up to 12 weeks is safe, effective, and comparable to hospital care

New approach to gravitational wave detection opens the Milli-Hz Frontier

Rice membrane extracts lithium from brines with greater speed, less waste

Exercise lowers disease risk. This researcher wants to understand how

Hurricane evacuation patterns differ based on where the storm hits

Stem Cell Reports welcomes new members to its Editorial Board

Researchers develop molecular qubits that communicate at telecom frequencies

Mayo Clinic awarded up to $40 million by ARPA-H for pioneering air safety research

People with Down syndrome have early neuroinflammation

CNIO researchers create the “human repairome”, a catalogue of DNA “scars” that will help define personalized cancer treatments

Strengthening biosecurity screening for genes that encode proteins of concern

Global wildfire disasters are growing in frequency and cost

Wildfire management: Reactive response and recovery, or proactive mitigation and prevention

Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf

Scientists develop rapid and scalable platform for in planta directed evolution

New tiny prehistoric fish species unlocks origins of catfish and carp

Plant microbiota: War and peace under the surface

Fossilized ear bones rewrite the history of freshwater fish

Detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf atmosphere raises more questions

USF study: Ancient plankton hint at steadier future for ocean life

MIT researchers find a simple formula could guide the design of faster-charging, longer-lasting batteries

Towards efficient room-temperature fluorine recovery from fluoropolymers

Mapping RNA-protein 'chats' could uncover new treatments for cancer and brain disease

The hidden burden of solitude: How social withdrawal influences the adolescent brain

Kidney disease study reveals unexpected marker

[Press-News.org] Benzodiazepines, 'z-drugs' increase death risk when taken with opioids