Benzodiazepines and Opioid co-use Among Rural People Who Use Drugs: Findings From the Rural Opioid Initiative

Benzodiazepines and opioids are among the most frequently misused psychoactive substances, but their patterns of co-use (polysubstance use) in rural areas are unclear. As resources to address substance use are disproportionally scarce in rural areas, a better understanding of this polysubstance use is critical to allocate and direct interventions.

The Rural Opioid Initiative comprises 8 research cohorts spanning 10 states and 65 rural counties. Participants were recruited from January 2018 to March 2020 and eligibility included past 30-day opioid use by any route or past 30-day injection of any substance. Analyses were restricted to participants reporting past 30-day opioid use and either benzodiazepine or stimulant use. We described bivariate cross-sectional associations between benzodiazepine+opioid use, compared with stimulant+opioid use, and substance use behaviors, health outcomes, injection drug use, addiction treatment, and criminal legal system involvement.

Of the 1107 ROI participants that met inclusion criteria, 10% (n = 107) reported benzodiazepine+opioid use, and 90% (n = 1000) reported stimulant+opioid use. The benzodiazepine+opioid group, compared with the stimulant+opioid group, had a higher use of opioid pain medication (73% vs 55%), gabapentin (43% vs 23%), and clonidine (12% vs 4%) to get high and used these substances more frequently; they also reported more frequent heavy episodic drinking (6.1 days per 30 days, SD = 9.4 vs 4.1 days, SD 7.5). The benzodiazepine+opioid group reported a lower prevalence in the past 6 months of law enforcement stop-and-search incidents (29% vs 48%), arrests (11% vs 28%), probation (22% vs 34%), jail/prison (18% vs 41%), and fewer days in jail/prison (4.7, SD = 19.1 days vs 15.9, SD = 35.7 days).

We found that benzodiazepines+opioids use was associated with more heavy episodic drinking and gabapentin use, and lower prevalence of criminal legal system involvement. These data suggest that individuals reporting benzodiazepines+opioids use have distinct behavioral patterns and outcomes that require targeted interventions for rural populations.