Gabapentin has been encountered in postmortem toxicology reports as indicated by data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers(AAPCC). According to the 2020 annual report of AAPCC’s National Poison Data System (NPDS), gabapentin was detected in a total of 135 fatalities in 2020 alone, compared to 168 total fatalities between 2012 and 2016 combined. Of those cases, gabapentin was the primary cause of death in 23 individuals.
According to this report, gabapentin was amongst one of the most frequent analytes detected in 1,547 tissue samples. Of the 154 analytes detected, gabapentin accounted for 25 samples.
Total exposure calls as a result of gabapentin stayed largely the same between 2017 and 2020 with 22,088 calls made in 2017 and 21,423 in 2020. Among cases classified as single substance pharmaceutical exposures (AAPCC defines single exposures as the number of human exposure cases that identified only one substance), gabapentin was identified as a single substance in 7,214 cases in 2020. With respect to medical outcomes associated with gabapentin calls to poison control centers in 2020, gabapentin was associated with 7 deaths, 178 outcomes classified as “major”, 832 outcomes classified as “moderate”, and 1,441 outcomes classified as “minor”.
