According to a study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health [See Bachhuber, Marcus A., MD, MSHP, et al., "Increasing Benzodiazepine Prescriptions and Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1996-2013,"Am J Public Health, Vol. 106, No. 4, pp. 686-688, April 2016 (doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303061)], both the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions and the number of deaths associated with benzodiazepine overdoses increased significantly between 1996 and 2013, the years of the study. The researcher's findings are consistent with earlier studies showing that the use of benzodiazepines, particularly when joined with opioids, significantly increases workers' compensation costs...read more.