--- title: Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels description: The number of overdoses has quadrupled over the past two decades. canonical: https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T14:30:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:13:02.914Z article:section: Health og:title: Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels og:description: The number has quadrupled over the past two decades og:url: https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac3b4c53d5b201b4/69887e4b8e0601b41d464ad9/xanax-valium-anxiety-drug-overdose-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2784 og:image:height: 1566 og:image:alt: Tranquillizer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels twitter:description: The number has quadrupled over the past two decades twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac3b4c53d5b201b4/69887e4b8e0601b41d464ad9/xanax-valium-anxiety-drug-overdose-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Maggie Fox / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Maggie Fox / NBC News Feb 19, 2016 2:30 PM UTC  A prescription of Xanax is shown at a pharmacy. A prescription of Xanax is shown at a pharmacy. BSIP—UIG/Getty Images by [Maggie Fox / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Maggie Fox / NBC News Feb 19, 2016 2:30 PM UTC More Americans than ever are overdosing on anxiety drugs, researchers reported Thursday — and it’s not clear why. The new study finds not only that more Americans are taking the drugs, which include brand names such as Valium and Xanax, but that they’re taking more of them. But while the quantity of prescriptions filled tripled between 1996 and 2013, the number of overdoses quadrupled during the same period, the team reported in the American Journal of Public Health. “We found that the death rate from overdoses involving benzodiazepines, also known as ‘benzos,’ has increased more than four-fold since 1996 — a public health problem that… _Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/"},"headline":"Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels","datePublished":"2016-02-19T14:30:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:13:02.914Z","description":"The number has quadrupled over the past two decades","url":"https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/","keywords":["Drugs","medicine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac3b4c53d5b201b4/69887e4b8e0601b41d464ad9/xanax-valium-anxiety-drug-overdose-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maggie Fox / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac3b4c53d5b201b4/69887e4b8e0601b41d464ad9/xanax-valium-anxiety-drug-overdose-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tranquillizer","caption":"Tranquillizer","creditText":"BSIP—UIG/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/drugs/","name":"Drugs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4230374/anxiety-drugs-overdose-study/","name":"Anxiety Drug Overdoses in U.S. Hit Record Levels"}}]}] ```