The prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities, such as anxiety and depression, in chronic pain patients may likely lead to concurrent use of benzo and opioids, which has been involved in at least 30% of opioid overdoses in the US. [3]

Due to the risk of adverse effects, the CDC issued guidelines in 2016 with warnings against co-prescribing these drugs. Still, it is unclear how these guidelines precisely influenced prescription patterns.

Interventional pain procedures can facilitate opioid use reduction and possibly decrease the psychological burden of pain. Yet, patterns of opioid or benzodiazepine use are not well characterized in patients undergoing interventional pain procedures.

We performed a retrospective chart review of chronic pain patients undergoing interventional pain procedures at a tertiary medical center from 20016 through 2019.