ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Neuropharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1645114
Identification of potential drug-induced neuralgia signals through disproportionality analysis of the FAERS database
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Health Vocational College, Beijing, China
- 2Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 3Beijing Jishuitan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Drug-induced neuralgia is a common and significant adverse reaction. This study analyzed the United States food and drug administration adverse event reporting system (FAERS) database to identify relevant drugs and potential mechanisms.We conducted an association analysis between drugs and neuralgia using the FAERS database. Disproportionality analysis methods, including the reporting odds ratio (ROR), proportional reporting ratio (PRR), Bayesian confidence propagation neural network (BCPNN), and empirical Bayesian geometric mean (EBGM), were applied. Data from 2004 to 2024 were analyzed to identify drugs potentially associated with neuralgia.Results: Among the 103,678 reports of neuralgia-related adverse events, 60.29% involved female patients, and 30.40% were aged between 41 and 64 years. The most common underlying medical conditions were plasma cell myeloma (14.28%) and multiple sclerosis (10.65%). The analysis revealed significant associations between neuralgia and several classes of drugs, including chemotherapeutic agents, certain antibiotics, and immunosuppressants, potentially attributable to neurotoxicity, immune-mediated mechanisms, or metabolic disruptions. Notably, lenalidomide exhibited the strongest association with neuralgia, followed by sodium citrate. These findings underscore the importance of early recognition, safer prescribing strategies, and further investigation to mitigate neurotoxic risks.This study identifies key drugs, including chemotherapeutics, antibiotics, and immunosuppressants, associated with drug-induced neuralgia through FAERS data analysis, highlighting the need for early detection, safer prescribing practices, and further research into mitigating neurotoxicity.
Keywords: Neuralgia, adverse drug event, FAERS database, Neurotoxicity, Signal detection
Received: 11 Jun 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 An, Zheng, Ziwei, Meng, Yin and An. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yahui An, Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.