Medication use was matched to Lexicon Plus by NHANES, which used Cerner Multum Inc to classify medications by therapeutic medication categories.8,12 We tabulated 23 total benzodiazepines, encompassing short-acting agents, long-acting medications, and selective benzodiazepine receptor modulators (“Z-drugs” [eg, zolpidem]). Based on established methods in previous studies,8,12 opioid narcotics included more than 60 generic and brand-name prescription pain medications12 (full classification scheme details in eTable 1 in the Supplement). Because selective benzodiazepine receptor modulators have been found to share similar adverse effects as benzodiazepines,30 benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine receptor modulators were grouped together.
