Is there a relationship between opioid use and transient global amnesia?

Background and purposeOpioid-associated amnestic syndrome (OAS) and transient global amnesia (TGA) are conditions with clinical overlap. We therefore sought to determine whether opioid use might be associated with TGA.MethodsData from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Syndromic Surveillance program were queried to ascertain the frequency of opioid use among emergency department (ED) encounters for TGA compared to that for all other ED visits between January 2019 and June 2023.ResultsA total of 13,188,630 ED visits were identified during the study period. Of 1417 visits for TGA, one visit met the exposure definition for opioid use. There were 13,187,213 visits for other indications, 57,638 of which were considered opioid-exposed. The odds ratio for the relationship between opioid use and TGA was 0.16 (95% confidence interval 0.02, 1.14).ConclusionDespite the clinical overlap between OAS and TGA, surveillance data from ED visits in Massachusetts do not suggest that opioid use is a risk factor for TGA, indicating that OAS and TGA are distinct entities.

Automated summary

By analyzing data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Syndromic Surveillance program, it was found that opioid use is not a risk factor for transient global amnesia (TGA) during emergency department visits, indicating that opioid-associated amnestic syndrome (OAS) and TGA are distinct entities.