An Opioid-benzodiazepine Interaction: Benzodiazepines as Opioids?

A review of opioid and benzodiazepine abuse has been published.[8] The authors are from the Division of Substance Abuse of the New York Psychiatric Institute. They reviewed the efforts to explain why patients using opioids supplement them with benzodiazepines. They felt that the published evidence did not support a pharmacokinetic interaction. They favored a pharmacodynamic explanation. This was based on the response of the methadone‑maintained patients, when they were queried as to why they took diazepam. The responses varied “to get high,” “have a good time,” and “produce an intense‑exciting experience.” However, none of the responses corresponded to the response of naive participants given benzodiazepines. These findings were similar to those seen in methadone‑treated patients given diazepam (20 and 40 mg)