2013 to 2024 Saw Decrease in Benzodiazepine Prescribing

FRIDAY, Oct. 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) — From 2013 to 2024, there was a decrease in benzodiazepine prescribing in the United States, according to a study published online Sept. 30 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Naomi Cruz, Ph.D., from Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey, and colleagues conducted a repeated cross-sectional analysis to examine national trends in benzodiazepine prescribing between 2013 and 2024 using the IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription dataset (1,100,233,787 prescription fills).

The researchers found that the annual U.S. prevalence of benzodiazepines dispensed decreased from 7.5 to 5.5 percent from 2013 to 2023 (26.7 percent). There were net decreases noted in prevalence across age groups; young adults aged 18 to 29 years had the largest relative reduction (−44.8 percent). The most benzodiazepine prescriptions were dispensed by primary care physicians, followed by advanced practice providers and psychiatrists/mental health specialists. The number of benzodiazepines dispensed by pain medicine specialists, primary care physicians, and psychiatrists/mental health specialists declined sharply (−62.5, −44.3, and −38.3 percent, respectively), while an increase was seen among advanced practitioners (+101.5 percent). Across all patient ages and prescriber types, the mean total dose dispensed per benzodiazepine prescription decreased, with the largest decrease seen in doses prescribed by pain medicine specialists (−65.3 percent).

“While the trends we observed may indicate shifts toward safer prescribing, ongoing research can help us better understand how practices are evolving and where opportunities exist to improve care,” Cruz said in a statement.

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