Drug-induced hyperacusis: a disproportionality analysis of the FAERS database

BACKGROUND: Hyperacusis is a non-negligible clinical condition, but reports related to drug-induced hyperacusis are rare. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk of drug-induced hyperacusis and to identify the top drugs that can cause hyperacusis through the FAERS database. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We used the search term 'hyperacusis' to query all reports of hyperacusis in the FAERS database from 2004 (Q1) to 2023 (Q4), and extracted, cleaned, mined, and analyzed the data to retrieve the top medications that cause hyperacusis. RESULT: A total of 2937 unduplicated reports of hyperacusis were found, and the top 10 drugs among them were screened. 6 of them had positive results for all 4 calculations, which was regarded as a strong signal. The likelihood of drug-induced hyperacusis varied considerably between sexes, with females being approximately 2.5 times more likely than males to develop drug-induced hyperacusis. CONCLUSION: By analyzing the FAERS database, we listed drugs with strong hyperacusis that were not suggested on the label and analyzed that the cause of hyperacusis by these drugs is likely to be related to altered levels of 5-HT in the organism. Women are more likely than men to develop pharmacologic hyperacusis.