The top line represents the number of<unk>  deaths that also involved opioids in the US. The bottom line represents<unk>  deaths that did not involve opioids.<unk> s have a wide therapeutic index and taken alone in<unk>  rarely cause severe complications or fatalities. More often than not, a patient who inadvertently takes more than the prescribed dose will simply feel drowsy and fall asleep for a few hours.<unk> s taken in<unk>  in combination with alcohol, barbiturates, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, or sedating antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, or antihistamines are particularly dangerous. Additionally, emergency department visits involving<unk> s compared to other sedative-hypnotics have much higher odds of hospitalization, patient transfer, or death. In the case of alcohol and barbiturates, not only do they have an additive effect but they also increase the binding affinity of<unk> s to the<unk>  binding site, which results in a very significant potentiation of the CNS and respiratory depressant effects. In addition, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses are much more vulnerable to lethal<unk>  with<unk> s. Fatal<unk> s can occur at relatively low doses in these individuals. Comparability The various<unk> s differ in their toxicity since they produce varying levels of sedation in<unk> . A 1993 British study of deaths during the 1980s found flurazepam and temazepam more frequently involved in drug-related deaths, causing more deaths per million prescriptions than other<unk> s. Flurazepam, now rarely prescribed in the United Kingdom and Australia, had the highest fatal toxicity index of any<unk>  (15.0), followed by temazepam (11.9), versus<unk> s overall (5.9), taken with or without alcohol. An Australian (1995) study found oxazepam less toxic and less sedative, and temazepam more toxic and more sedative, than most<unk> s in<unk> . An Australian study (2004) of<unk>  admissions between 1987 and 2002 found alprazolam, which happens to be the most prescribed<unk>  in the U.S. by a large margin, to be more toxic than diazepam and other<unk> s. They also cited a review of the Annual Reports of the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Data Collection System, which showed alprazolam was involved in 34 fatal deliberate self-poisonings over 10 years (1992–2001), compared with 30 fatal deliberate self-poisonings involving diazepam. In a New Zealand study (2003) of 200 deaths, Zopiclone, a<unk>  receptor agonist, had similar<unk>  potential as<unk> s.
Benzodiazepine overdose
Opioid overdose
Tricyclic antidepressant overdose
Cocaine intoxication
Nicotine withdrawal
Carbamate poisoning
Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome
Drug withdrawal