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Risk of dementia following gabapentin prescription

https://rapm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/07/02/rapm-2025-106577
13•geox•7mo ago

Comments

codingdave•7mo ago
Correlation.

I take gabapentin for pain, so this study absolutely caught my eye. And I'm going to ask my doc about it. But the study is clear that this is a correlation, not a causation.

jjgreen•7mo ago
True, but tendency to dementia causes a fondness for a particular drug? Some 3rd effect causes both?
codingdave•7mo ago
Those questions are exactly why I'm going to ask my doc. But because gabapentin is specifically for neuropathic pain, I could certainly envision a scenario where a deeper neurological root cause is giving someone both pain and dementia, so they are both symptoms.

I'm not banking on that, of course. It is worth digging into to find out more.

jjgreen•7mo ago
Definitely, best of luck ...
stacktrust•7mo ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44527484#44529281
sudoshred•7mo ago
Another plausible interpretation is that the profile of a patient who is commonly prescribed the drug substantially overlaps with the profile of a patient who one day develops dementia.
stacktrust•7mo ago
Earlier thread (50 comments), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44527484