An Opioid-benzodiazepine Interaction: Benzodiazepines as Opioids?
Neville F. Ford1,2★★ Corresponding author
- 1Woodfield Clinical Consulting LLC, Green Valley, Arizona 85622, USA.
- 2Department of Medicine, Rutgers-RWJ Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA.
CORRESPONDENCE
Neville F. Ford
Woodfield Clinical Consulting LLC, Green Valley, Arizona 85622, USA.
Received: 30-04-2018; Revised: 04-06-2018; Accepted: 17-08-2018.
Volume 9, Issue 3 · pp. 165–6 · PUBLISHED 2018 · DOI: 10.4103/jpp.JPP_56_18
ABSTRACT
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)
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Ford, N. F. (2018). An Opioid-benzodiazepine Interaction: Benzodiazepines as Opioids?. Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics, 9(3), 165–6. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpp.JPP_56_18