Health leaders want warnings highlighting deadly risks of opioid, benzo combos

Many patients who take an opioid to relieve pain also have anxiety, headaches or trouble sleeping and take a benzodiazepine like Valium or Xanax or Klonopin. But together, these two classes of drugs slow breathing and can be deadly, especially if the patient is using one or both of them to get high. In 2013, traces of both drugs were found in one third of men and women across the U.S. who died from an unintentional overdose. In Massachusetts, 13 percent of overdose deaths in 2014 involved heroin in combination with a benzo. Public health leaders are calling on the FDA to make sure doctors and patients understand the risks.