Edema as a Side Effect of Gabapentinoid Drugs

Edema is a well-described side effect of gabapentinoid drugs (i.e., gabapentin and pregabalin). In this study from Ontario, Canada, researchers used provincial databases to examine whether gabapentinoid use was followed by diuretic prescriptions — a so-called “prescribing cascade” in which a drug is prescribed to treat an adverse effect of another drug. The study population was 260,000 older adults (age, >65) with newly diagnosed back pain or sciatica; gabapentinoids had been prescribed for ≈8000 of these patients. The researchers limited the analysis to patients with these diagnoses to create a reasonably homogeneous study population.

During the 90 days after diagnoses of back pain, patients who received gabapentinoids were significantly mo…