Legal Landscape of Gabapentin Drug Scheduling and Required Prescription Drug Monitoring

About this dataset:

Gabapentin is a prescription medication used as an anticonvulsive or for the off-label treatment of neuropathic pain. Since the late 2000s, gabapentin prescription use has risen across the United States, likely driven by growing off-label prescribing for a variety of indications. Many of these indications lack evidence of a clear, demonstrated benefit from gabapentin.

Misuse and diversion of gabapentin is of growing concern, and harms associated with gabapentin misuse, particularly with concurrent opioid use, are well documented. Currently, gabapentin products are not scheduled federally under the Control Substance Act.  In an attempt to reduce prescribing and address misuse, numerous jurisdictions have enacted policies to classify gabapentin as a schedule V controlled substance or mandate reporting of gabapentin prescriptions in jurisdiction-level prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).

This is a longitudinal dataset analyzing statutes and regulations related to the scheduling or required prescription drug monitoring of gabapentin in effect between January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2024 across 51 jurisdictions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia). More detail is available in the protocol.

This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under award number R36DA062854. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.