Prescription Drug Addiction Increasing in Older Adults

Articles about prescription drug addiction in older adults quote Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD, professor of psychiatry and director of UB’s Clinical and Research Institute on Addiction, who discussed the tendency for these patients to sometimes combine opioids with benzodiazepines because of an increased tolerance for these drugs. “They’re not using these medications to get high or for risk-taking but they’re using them to manage their pain,” he said. “Sometimes they combine them with benzodiazepines that they are prescribed. And many of the deaths that we see involve a combination of opiates and benzodiazepines.”