Die Behandlung chronischer Schmerzen im unteren Rücken mit Gabapentin, einem beliebten opioidalternativen Schmerzmittel, erhöht das Risiko einer Alzheimer-Krankheit. Dieses Risiko ist unter diesen 35 bis 64 am höchsten, die doppelt so häufig Alzheimer entwickeln
Gabapentin use for back pain linked to higher risk of dementia, study finds
16 Kommentare
We’re getting to the point where you could just say “any medication taken for a long time causes dementia”
__Link to the research paper: https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2025-106577__
*From the paper:*
>Patients with six or more gabapentin prescriptions had an increased incidence of dementia (RR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.18–1.40) and mild cognitive impairment (RR: 1.85; 95% CI: 1.63–2.10). When stratified by age, non-elderly adults (18–64) prescribed gabapentin had over twice the risk of dementia (RR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.75–2.51) and mild cognitive impairment (RR: 2.50; 95% CI: 2.04–3.05) compared to those not prescribed gabapentin. Risk increased further with prescription frequency: patients with 12 or more prescriptions had a higher incidence of dementia (RR: 1.40; 95% CI: 1.25–1.57) and mild cognitive impairment (RR: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.42–1.91) than those prescribed gabapentin 3–11 times.
Is it possible that people with back pain might exercise less or even not at all? I took this for two or three months and weened myself off it as quickly as possible.
How do they exclude the possibility that folks with the earliest stages of alzheimers could be more likely to develop severe nerve pain?
I’ve been on gabapentin for like fifteen years as a migraine preventative, and I’m in my fifties. Guess I’m cooked.
Interesting that they focus specifically on lower back pain – I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it being prescribed for that before? I’m also *very* curious about the „despite a lack of evidence“ comment in the article, and if that’s also specific to only lower back pain. I’ve been on gabapentin for about six years now for „fibromyalgia“ (i.e. widespread chronic pain with no known cause), and it definitely helps a lot. Might just be the mechanism of pain is different or something though.
Hopefully this leads to development of medication that helps treat pain *without* increasing dementia risk for people in the future, but damn, really sucks to read reports like this when it’s a medication you truly rely on to function.
Edit: Didn’t mean to suggest that it couldn’t be prescribed for lower back pain, and I totally understand it has a lot of different uses! Just wasn’t one I was familiar with personally, and was curious why they chose that focus for the study and whether that focus would impact the results of the study is all.
Well, that’s unfortunate. I’m guessing that pregabalin also carries the same risks.
Gabapentin is anticholinergic so it blocks acetylcholine.
https://www.nps.org.au/assets/NPS/pdf/RACF-Toolkit-Presentation-Template-PDF.pdf
I guess we could say the doctors don’t actually read any of the information that comes packaged with the medication that they prescribe. Medication has become an avenue for income with consideration for the risk associated with it.
Risk of dementia following gabapentin prescription in chronic low back pain patients | Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine https://rapm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/07/02/rapm-2025-106577
I hate when papers only state the percentage inrease of the risk without telling us the raw data. Like are we talking about an 85% risk increase of a risk that was 1 in 20 or 1 in 1000? For people prescribed gabapentin, it’s hard to make sense of these statements unless we can find out more.
Keep in mind this study was done on people with chronic pain. People who suffer from chronic pain are at a much higher risk of developing dementia.
[Greater number of chronic pain sites was associated with an increased risk of incident all-cause dementia and AD, suggesting that chronic pain in multiple sites may contribute to individuals’ dementia risk and is an underestimated risk factor for dementia.](https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-023-02875-x)
People with chronic pain may suffer from insomnia, depression, anxiety, less likely to exercise, etc. All these things can greatly increase the risk of dementia.
Been using gabapentin for anxiety/panic attacks on and off for the past 8 years. Not familiar with physiological effects of it, can someone explain how this drug works to manage so many different types of health issues?
Could Pregabalin be similar?
I think I’ll stick with ibuprofen and hanging on my chin-up bar till my spine goes „pop“.
Does this apply to lyrica too?