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Published on: May 16, 2019
Gabapentinoids: The rise of a new misuse epidemics?
Michel Hofmann1, Marie Besson2
1Department of Psychiatry, Service of psychiatric specialties, Mood disorder unit, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue de Lausanne 20, CH-1201, Geneva, Switzerland; Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Anesthesiology, Psychopharmacology Unit, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
Abstract:
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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