Trends in the Concurrent Prescription of Opioids and Gabapentin in the US, 2006 to 2018
Three pages on PainSci cite Peet 2022: 1. The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain 2. Neuropathies Are Overdiagnosed 3. More anticonvulsants, more!
PainSci notes on Peet 2022:
There has been mighty 5x surge in gabapentin prescriptions, even as opioids fell (2006–2018), despite gabapentin’s dubious value for most kinds of pain. And that 5x increase was more with opioids than replacing them: overlapping prescriptions tripled. “Why not both?” like the meme says. Oh, I can think of a few reasons…
“Clinicians clearly are turning to gabapentin as a nonopioid option for pain management or adding it to opioid treatment to avoid escalating opioid doses. Clinicians should not view gabapentin as a panacea for chronic pain management and should be especially wary of coprescribing it with opioids.”
related content
- “Anticonvulsants in the treatment of low back pain and lumbar radicular pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” Enke et al, CMAJ, 2018.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Topical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) and eccentric exercises in the treatment of mid-portion achilles tendinopathy (the NEAT trial): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Kirwan 2024 Br J Sports Med.
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- Moderators of the effect of therapeutic exercise for knee and hip osteoarthritis: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. Holden 2023 The Lancet Rheumatology.