Report Finds VA ’s Prescribing of Benzodiazepines to Homeless ‘Risky,’ ‘Inappropriate’

Homeless veterans with mental illness who use Veterans Affairs (VA) health services are less likely to receive prescriptions for benzodiazepines than those with mental illness who are not homeless, according to areport published this week inPsychiatric Services. When homeless veterans are prescribed benzodiazepines, however, they appear more likely than their peers to receive prescriptions that put them at risk for substance use disorder, overdose, and death, the study found.Drug overdose is a leading cause of death among homeless people, and benzodiazepines are often implicated in such overdose deaths, wrote Katherine Koh, M.D., M.Sc., of Massachusetts General Hospital –Harvard Medical School and colleagues.“Asking patients about whether and how they combine substances and counseling them about these risks should be part of clinical conversations about benzodiazepine prescribing,” Koh and colleagues wrote.The researchers examined 2018-2019 national data from the VA, specifically focusing on benzodiazepine prescribing among 244,113 homeless veterans with mental illness and 2,763,513 veterans with mental illness who were not homeless. All veterans included in the study had a primary or secondary diagnosis of a mental illness, as determined by ICD-10 codes. Veterans were categorized as being homeless if they had used any VA homelessness program.The benzodiazepines most frequently prescribed to veterans included lorazepam, clonazepam, alprazolam, and diazepam. The research...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: alcohol use benzodiazepines death drug use homeless overdose prescribing substance use disorder VA veterans Source Type: research