Efficacy of Gabapentin in Neuropathic Pain: A Study at Nobel Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Nepal

摘要

Pain is a common symptom in many diseases. Neuropathic pain is produced by damage to or pathological changes in the peripheral or central nervous systems. Since most neuropathic pain respond poorly to NSAIDSs and opioid analgesics, newer anticonvulsant drug, ‘Gabapentin’ having neuromodulatory effect on pain perception mechanisms, has shown promising effects in alleviating such pain. To have an idea of the analgesic efficacy of gabapentin in relieving neuropathic pain, this hospital based observational prospective study was taken up for six months at Nobel Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar in the Department of Orthopedics. 100 patients with neuropathic pain were monitored daily for the severity of pain and quality of sleep for 1 week using Visual Analog scale (VAS) and Sleep Quality Scale. The mean baseline pain score on Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for all cases on day 1 was 62.8±13.4mm while it was reduced to 34.8±11.9 mm (p<0.001) on day 7. Similarly, the mean baseline Sleep interference score on Sleep Quality Scale for all cases on day 1 was 3.04 ± 1.77 while on day 7 the score was reduced to 1.92 ± 0.39 (p<0.001). Overall, the mean pain reduction in neuropathic pain was 44.58%, and the mean reduction in sleep interference was 36.84%. The study showed that gabapentin had significant analgesic efficacy in reduction in neuropathic pain with few adverse effects like dizziness and somnolence (drowsiness).