Combining pain and anxiety medications are a deadly mix.

Researchers are warning of a new danger. A deadly combination is taking opioids to deal with pain while also taking antianxiety medicines. The medical service histories of 13,000 adults who died of an opioid overdoes was looked into by a research team at the Columbia University Medical Center. They found during the last year of their lives, more than 6 in 10 had been diagnosed with chronic pain. Many of those also suffered from depression and anxiety. In the year they died, over half with chronic pain issues had gotten prescriptions for both opioids and antianxiety drugs like Valium and Xanax. The primary cause of death in most fatal opioid overdoses is unusually slow and shallow breathing, which this combination has an increased risk. The study looked at people up to the age of 64.