Why the study?
Increasing gabapentinoid prescriptions have led to frequent abuse, particularly among patients with opiate addiction, increasing risks from synergistic central depressant effects and prompting reconsideration of prescription practices.
Gabapentinoids carry a significant risk of misuse and dangerous synergistic depressant effects when combined with opioids, requiring careful prescription management.
Gabapentinoids may heighten opioid risks in addicts; leaves open causal confirmation in prospective studies.
Gabapentinoids and opioids have in common that they are used in medicine in the treatment of pain, and by addicts in recreational use. In recent years, in the context of the "opioid epidemics", gabapentinoids, which had a reputation for low risk of abuse, have been increasingly prescribed. This was accompanied by increasingly frequent abuses, the patients most at risk being those suffering from opiate addiction. However, gabapentinoids increase the risks associated with opioids or other sedatives, due to a synergy of central depressant effects. This leads to reconsider the framework of their prescription and the management of chronic pain.
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Hofmann et al. (2021) studied this question.
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