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New research · Ophthalmology
American journal of ophthalmology · 22h
Cohort studyAmerican journal of ophthalmology · 2026

Evaluation of the impact of gamma-aminobutyric acid on diabetic retinopathy in a large US population-based cohort.

Sonia B Kim, Melody Y Zhou, Kevin C Allan … Katherine E Talcott
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OphthalmologyCohort study

GABAergic medication use is associated with a lower hazard of diabetic retinopathy development.

Evaluation of the impact of gamma-aminobutyric acid on diabetic retinopathy in a large US population-based cohort.

Sonia B Kim et al. · American journal of ophthalmology · 2026
Purpose

To investigate how exposure to GABAergic medications affects diabetic retinopathy (DR) development, progression, and complications.

Methods

Retrospective clinical cohort study using multi-institutional electronic health record data (TriNetX, US Collaborative Network) PARTICIPANTS: : Adults aged ≥18 years with type 2 diabetes mellitus with ophthalmology follow-up.

n = 14,644
Results

GABAergic medicine use for 6 months significantly lowers the risk of diabetic eye disease

HR by subgroup · 95% CI
null = 1
HR for DR development at all time
0.61
5-years
0.81
6-months
0.75
Prescription for 6-months
0.74
More results

After successful PSM, there were 110,495 (6-months), 99,187 (1-year), 63,194 (3-years), and 40,810 (5-years) DR-naive study patients with the respective GABAergic prescription durations of interest.

More results

Study patients (n=14,644) with baseline mild/moderate nonproliferative DR had a significantly reduced hazard of progressing to severe nonproliferative DR, proliferative DR, or DR interventions with 6-months (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.68-0.82) and 1-year (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.73, 0.86) GABAergic exposure.

“
Conclusion · 1 of 2

GABAergic medication use, particularly short-term exposure, is associated with a reduced hazard of DR development, progression, and complications.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

These exploratory findings support a potential role of GABAergic modulation in diabetic retinal disease.

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