The study, published today in JAMA Network Open , tracked patients hospitalized for hip fractures in Victoria, Australia from March 2013 through June 2018, who had used gabapentinoids before the injury. Often seen as a safer alternative to opioids for the treatment of neuropathic pain, gabapentinoid use increased eightfold between 2012 and 2018, with one in seven Australians aged 80 and older prescribed a gabapentinoid during this period. Currently, gabapentinoids are within the ten most subsidised medications by volume in Australia.
Study co-author and Director of the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety (CMUS) at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor Simon Bell, said gabapentinoids can be effective for neuropathic pain but can also result in adverse events including dizziness, gait disturbance and balance disorder. The researchers analysed the data for 28,293 patients who experienced hip fractures across a five-year period. Our results showed patients had 30 per cent increased odds of suffering a hip fracture within two months of being dispensed a gabapentinoid medication.
The link between gabapentinoids and hip fractures existed across different age groups but the odds of hip fracture was higher among patients who were frailer or had chronic kidney disease, so these should be important considerations when deciding when to prescribe gabapentinoids." Professor Simon Bell, Director of the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety (CMUS), Monash Institute of Pharma.
