How addictive are gabapentin and pregabalin ?

[Chip (OP)]

How addictive are gabapentin and pregabalin?

Not overly so apparently. I use it for Arthritic pain and General Anxiety.

Download the attached study; here is the abstract:

In the last ten years, gabapentin and pregabalin have becoming dispensed broadly
and sold on black markets, thereby, exposing millions to potential side-effects.
Meanwhile, several pharmacovigilance-databases have warned for potential abuse
liabilities and overdose fatalities in association with both gabapentinoids.

To evaluate their addiction risk in more detail, we conducted a systematic review on
PubMed/Scopus and included 104 studies. We did not find convincing evidence of a
vigorous addictive power of gabapentinoids which is primarily suggested from their
limited rewarding properties, marginal notes on relapses, and the very few cases with
gabapentinoid-related behavioral dependence symptoms (ICD-10) in patients without
a prior abuse history (N=4).

In support, there was no publication about people who
sought treatment for the use of gabapentinoids. Pregabalin appeared to be
somewhat more addictive than gabapentin regarding the magnitude of behavioral
dependence symptoms, transitions from prescription to self-administration, and the
durability of the self-administrations.

The principal population at risk for addiction of gabapentinoids consists of patients with other current or past substance use disorders (SUD), mostly opioid and multi-drug users, who preferred pregabalin.

Pure overdoses of gabapentinoids appeared to be relative safe but can become lethal
(pregabalin > gabapentin) in mixture with other psychoactive drugs, especially
opioids again and sedatives.

Based upon these results, we compared the addiction
risks of gabapentin and pregabalin with those of traditional psychoactive substances
and recommend that in patients with a history of SUD, gabapentinoids should be
avoided or if indispensable, administered with caution by using a strict therapeutic
and prescription monitoring.

[limerence]

It's like
>nah bro im not addicted to cigarettes. i dont really crave them or anything
>well you are smoking one.

Gabapentin/Lyrica are some of the most rx'd drugs in the US. They're obviously used by a lot of people, I'm almost 30 and a fair amount of my peers take gabapentin. That might be because it's one of the only somewhat enjoyable and useful drugs you can get prescribed for poor people. If you had the option of 1950s-1960s rx drugs and gabapentin, how many would choose or still use gabapentin? I've taken my share of gabapentin. I don't trust it. I think Phenibut (fellow gabapentinoid, albeit w/ weak gaba b action but mainly calcium channel action like gabapentin) is safer long term option. I used to use it for pain but instead I found the cause of pain and treated it.