Xanax News and Research

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Xanax is a drug used to treat anxiety disorders and panic attacks. It is being studied in the treatment of nausea and vomiting caused by some cancer treatments. It is a type of benzodiazepine. Also called alprazolam.

More kids are dying of drug overdoses. Could pediatricians do more to help?

A 17-year-old boy with shaggy blond hair stepped onto the scale at Tri-River Family Health Center in Uxbridge, Massachusetts.

5 Apr 2024

Lorazepam linked to shorter progression-free survival in pancreatic cancer patients

Patients with pancreatic cancer who took the benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan), commonly prescribed to treat anxiety during cancer treatment, had a shorter progression-free survival than patients who did not, according to results published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

17 Aug 2023

The DEA relaxed online prescribing rules during covid. Now it wants to rein them in.

Federal regulators want most patients to see a health care provider in person before receiving prescriptions for potentially addictive medicines through telehealth — something that hasn't been required in more than three years.

27 Jun 2023

Anxiety attack or panic attack: Both may have come from the brain

An attack can come crashing in like a storm on a clear spring day. In an instant, your heart pounds, sweat soaks you and you struggle to breathe.

29 Mar 2023

End of covid emergency will usher in changes across the US health system

The Biden administration's decision to end the covid-19 public health emergency in May will institute sweeping changes across the health care system that go far beyond many people having to pay more for covid tests.

22 Mar 2023

Seniors with anxiety frequently don’t get help. Here’s why.

Anxiety is the most common psychological disorder affecting adults in the U.S. In older people, it's associated with considerable distress as well as ill health, diminished quality of life, and elevated rates of disability.

10 Mar 2023

Young people treated for sleep disorders with benzodiazepines may be at higher risk of overdose

Teens and young adults who are treated for sleep disorders with benzodiazepines such as Xanax – a medication commonly prescribed to treat anxiety and insomnia – may be at a higher risk of overdose, according to Rutgers researchers.

23 Nov 2022

New fentanyl vaccine could prevent deadly opioid from entering the brain

A research team led by the University of Houston has developed a vaccine targeting the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl that could block its ability to enter the brain, thus eliminating the drug's "high."

14 Nov 2022

Fentanyl in high school: A Texas community grapples with the reach of the deadly opioid

The hallways of Lehman High School looked like any other on a recent fall day. Its 2,100 students talked and laughed as they hurried to their next classes, moving past walls covered with flyers that advertised homecoming events, clubs, and football games.

10 Nov 2022

Study finds a declining trend in use of medications for sleep disturbance among Americans

Americans aren't turning to pharmaceutical options as often in the never-ending battle for a good night's sleep.

16 Aug 2022

The new MADD movement: Parents rise up against drug deaths

Life as he knew it ended for Matt Capelouto two days before Christmas in 2019, when he found his 20-year-old daughter, Alexandra, dead in her childhood bedroom in Temecula, California. Rage overtook grief when authorities ruled her death an accident.

23 May 2022

Youth with intentional BZD overdoses more likely to have recent doctor-written prescription

A high number of teens and young adults with an overdose involving a benzodiazepine (BZD), like Xanax, or psychostimulant, like Adderall – medications commonly used to treat mental health issues like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders – have a recent medical prescription for a BZD or stimulant, according to Rutgers researchers who say physicians need to weigh the risks and benefits of these medications more closely.

10 Mar 2022

‘Social prescribing’ may help lonely older adults to avoid harmful sedatives and painkillers

Lonely, older adults are nearly twice as likely to use opioids to ease pain and two-and-a-half times more likely to use sedatives and anti-anxiety medications, putting themselves at risk for drug dependency, impaired attention, falls and other accidents, and further cognitive impairment, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco.

26 Jul 2021

Opioids like ‘lean’ permeate hip-hop culture, but dangers are downplayed

Nykerrius Williams knows about the close relationship between hip-hop and opioid use. Williams, 27, an independent rapper from Gibsland, Louisiana, who goes by the name Young Nyke, took oxycodone pills for the first time when he was 16 and has continued patterns of misuse of those pills, as well as Lortabs, Xanax and codeine cough syrups, until recently. To him, it's part of the business.

28 May 2021

Scientists receive NIH grant to develop an adjuvant vaccine for opioid use disorder

Opioid addicts wage a daily war within over whether or not to use a drug whose side effect can be death. If those same addicts, however, had the choice to take an opioid vaccine once or twice a year, their internal struggle could be over.

20 Apr 2021

Study: 94% of older adults prescribed fall-risk-increasing drugs

Nearly every older adult was prescribed a prescription drug that increased their risk of falling in 2017, according to new University at Buffalo research.

16 Mar 2021

Repurposing an anxiety drug to increase the efficacy of therapies for metastatic melanoma

There are times when adding something new to the mix makes it better. Give Popeye some spinach, and you've got a fighting machine. Give Mario a mushroom, and he becomes invincible. Without drinking a potion, Alice in Wonderland would never fit through the door.

5 Nov 2020

Hop supplements used by menopausal women are not likely to cause drug interactions

Hop-based dietary supplements that many women use to ease the night sweats and hot flashes commonly reported during menopause aren't likely to cause drug interactions, new research from Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute and College of Pharmacy shows.

19 May 2020

Problem drinkers have higher likelihood of using benzodiazepines

Problem drinkers are more likely than teetotalers and moderate drinkers to take benzodiazepines, a class of sedatives that are among the most commonly prescribed drugs -- and the most abused.

14 Dec 2019

Validation of new method for studying how different drugs interact in the body

Scientists at Oregon State University may have proven how much people love coffee, tea, chocolate, soda and energy drinks as they validated their new method for studying how different drugs interact in the body.

26 Nov 2019