Off-Label Psychiatric Use of Gabapentin Found to Be Frequent, Risky

Ananalysis inPsychiatric Services in Advance reports that over 99% of prescriptions for the anticonvulsant gabapentin are off label, including many prescriptions for psychiatric disorders. In addition, nearly 60% of the patients prescribed gabapentin were also found to be taking central nervous system depressants (CNS-D) such as benzodiazepines, a combination that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently warned against.To better understand gabapentin prescribing for psychiatric disorders, Brianna Costales, B.S., and Amie J. Goodin, Ph.D., M.P.P., of the University of Florida analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) —an annual survey of office-based physicians that captures national practices in outpatient medicine.The authors specifically focused on data gathered from 2011 to 2016, which included 205,417 office visits involving patients aged 18 and older. Of these visits, 5,732 involved a prescription for gabapentin. Compared with those who were not prescribed gabapentin, the patients who were prescribed gabapentin were older (average age of 59.8), about 87% were White, and more than 60% were female.Only 0.6% of all gabapentin prescriptions were for an approved indication, namely, focal seizures or shingles-related neurological pain. In contrast, 5.3% of all gabapentin prescriptions were for a depressive disorder, 3.5% were for an anxiety disorder, 1.8% were for bipolar disorder, and 0.7% for alcohol use disorder.Costales and Goodin also...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: antidepressants anxiety bipolar disorder CNS depressants depression gabapentin off label Psychiatric Services in Advance Source Type: research