How does medical and non-medical use of z-drugs relate to psychological distress and use of other depressant drugs?
Over 3% of Americans used a z-drug in the past year. Z-drugs are used for insomnia and have considerable potential for abuse. With this in mind, the authors of a recently published study set out to find if there was an association of z-drugs with psychological distress and depressant drug use.
The study main findings were statistically significant correlations between z-drugs and this distress, benzodiazepine use, and benzodiazepine use disorders. Past-year use of tranquilizers had a risk ratio of 4.70 among medical users of z-drugs, and this ratio increased to 6.56 among non-medical users. Read the full article here.