Patients' and prescribers' experiences of Gabapentinoids for pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration of Patients' and prescribers' experiences of Gabapentinoids for Chronic Pain
IRAS ID
339679
Contact name
Cormac Ryan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 6 days
Research summary
Approximately 28 million live with chronic pain in the UK equating to 44% of the population. The Global Burden of Disease Study (2016) highlighted pain as one of the most prominent causes of disability. In 2021 NICE recommended management of chronic pain should not include Gabapentinoids and if a person was already prescribed them, this should be reviewed, and in patients where these medications had not helped deprescribing should be a priority. Prior to this recommendation Gabapentin and Pregabalin had not been reducing contrary to best-evidence recommendations, in fact there prescribing increased by 53% between 2011 and 2019. This equated to over 14 million prescriptions of gabapentinoids issued in 2018.
The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of taking gabapentinoids of people who live with chronic pain, and the experience of Health care professionals who prescribe gabapentinoids. In both cases the study will seek to explore the experience of prescribing, and/or titrating, and/or stopping a gabapentinoid being used for chronic pain.
Participants will be initially contacted by a designated Gatekeeper, Individuals will be eligible if they fit into one of four categories: 1) Prescribed and still taking a gabapentinoid, 2) Prescribed and reducing their dose of a gabapentinoid, 3) previously prescribed and stopped a gabapentinoid, or 3) a HCP who prescribes, titrates and deprescribes gabapentinoids. A purposive sample of between 40-60 participants in total will be aimed for - 12-15 from each of the four categories.
This study is part of an unfunded Doctorate qualification. The study will be conducted on site at Moorlands GP practice by the Doctoral researcher. All interviews will take place over a 3-6 month period. Each interview will be allocated approximately 60 min. The full research project will take 12 months.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0059
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion