CDC Recommendations

CDC Recommendation 11: Opioid and benzodiazepines combination

Clinicians should use particular caution when prescribing opioid pain medication and benzodiazepines concurrently and consider whether benefits outweigh risks of concurrent prescribing of opioids and other central nervous system depressants.

Utah Supplemental Recommendations

- Avoid and counsel against combining opioids with central nervous system (CNS) depressants.
- Avoid prescribing, and counsel against, concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines.
- Patients should also be counseled against concurrent use of opioids with other sedating substances (alcohol, muscle relaxant drugs) and sedative hypnotics (prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids, etc).
- Concurrent use of alcohol, benzodiazepines, and other CNS depressants increases the risk of respiratory depression, which can potentially cause death.
- Concurrent use of benzodiazepines require explicit medical justification due to the serious risk of respiratory depression.
- For putative psychiatric indications, psychiatric consultation should be sought to treat the patient’s condition with potentially less toxic drug-to-drug interactions.
- Prescribers should warn patients of the high-risk interaction of opioids and CNS depressants.