Posted on 01/18/2024 9:36:01 AM PST by ConservativeMind
A population-based cohort study of more than 10,000 persons using gabapentinoids found that their use was associated with an increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. This study supports the warnings from regulatory agencies and highlights the importance of considering this potential risk when prescribing gabapentin and pregabalin to patients with COPD.
Gabapentinoid drugs are anticonvulsant drugs indicated for the treatment of epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Despite limited indications, its prescription has surged across North America and Europe, which may partly stem from excessive off-label prescribing. However, these drugs have been reported to cause central nervous system depression, leading to sedation and respiratory depression in animal and human studies. This safety issue may be of particular concern in patients with respiratory diseases like COPD.
Researchers from McGill University and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research studied insurance data for 356 gabapentinoid users with epilepsy, 9,411 with neuropathic pain, and 3,737 with other chronic pain.
The gabapentinoid users were matched 1:1 to nonusers on COPD duration, indication for gabapentinoids, age, sex, calendar year, and time-conditional propensity score. The authors found that compared with nonuse, gabapentinoid use was associated with an increased risk for severe COPD exacerbation among users taking these drugs for epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and chronic pain, and peak increase in risk for severe COPD exacerbation occurred after approximately six months of continuous use.
Among patients with neuropathic pain and other chronic pain, the risk was observed regardless of age, sex, number of prior COPD exacerbations, prior use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), number of respiratory medications used, or opioid or benzodiazepine use. According to the authors, physicians should consider these potential risks before prescribing gabapentin and pregabalin to patients with COPD.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
- Gabapentin (Neurontin, Gabagamma)
- Gabapentin extended-release (Gralise)
- Gabapentin enacarbil (Horizant)
- Mirogabalin (Tarlige)
- Phenibut (Anvifen, Fenibut, Noofen)
- Pregabalin (Lyrica)
If you are on any of these, and you have COPD, you are at increased risk of accelerated COPD problems.
Thanks for the info! My husband has COPD and is on lyrica for chronic pain.
Oh my God I had no idea that gabapentoids were so dangerous! Thank goodness for Medical Xpress where every article is important.
Yep- was on gabapentin years ago, and have COPD- not on it anymore-
Fine! I’ll switch to morphine for my neuropathy pain!
Yep...it’s a dang if you do dang if you don’t...It’s a balancing act.
The doctor had me on gabapentin after a drunk driver ran over me. It didn’t do squat.
Has anyone seen any effect from taking this drug?
Hell yeah I’m with you
And relaxes the diaphragm
Gabapentin didn’t do much for me honestly
it only helped very slightly- but wasn’t worth the $$ so i quit it
I thought those were the things that lived underground on that movie “Tremors”.
supposedly ALA Alpha Lipoic Acid is claimed to help with neuropathy pain=- but I didn’t feel any difference- many of the so called ‘natural doctors’ call for using ALA- but my understanding is that once the nerves are dead or damaged- there is no reviving them again-
I just had an ingrown toenail breaK off and work it’s way through my toe, and pop out the end of my toe- thankfully the neuropathy helped mask the pain of that ordeal by quite a bit- only when it got it’s worst did i feel the pain from the nail sliver-
it’s weird though how the feet can be nearly dead to feeling, but still hurt
Gabapentin - found it to be good for neuropathic pain, however it absolutely blew my of memory to the point I found myself repeating work assignments as I had no memory of having already completed a task the day before. Or being in a parking lot a couple of times with no idea why I was there. Stopped the med noticing these severe issues.
Gabapentin is the only thing that holds my excruciating foot neuropathy at bay.
Just in the last six months was tested for COPD.
Negative. NO COPD at all.
Has completely suppressed my diabetic neuropathy, allowing me to sleep without pain in my feet.
>>Has anyone seen any effect from taking this drug?
It controlled my wife’s temporomandibular joint pain. It had reoccurred after she took Zoloft, and it was severe to the point that I thought she’d stop eating. Increasing the dose controlled it again.
“Has anyone seen any effect from taking this drug?”
me ... but totally negative ... a couple of doses and i thought i was in Hell ... worse drug i’ve ever tried to take in my life ...
i was prescibed it for neuropathic pain from a nerve damaged in my forearm by a cardiac catheterization procedure ... fortunately, one of my docs suggested IV infusions of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) for neuropathy and after two infusions, the pain was permanently cured ...
Hope it remains that way for you- especially if it’s working-
“supposedly ALA Alpha Lipoic Acid is claimed to help with neuropathy pain”
works best when infused intravenously in large doses ... cured neuropathic pain in a forearm nerve damaged by a rough cardiac catheterization procedure ... also cured iatrogenic neuropathy post medial branch nerve ablation of the cervical vertebra ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.