Acta neurologica Scandinavica. Supplementum
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Diabetic neuropathy is common in patients with diabetes mellitus, and 7.5% of diabetics experience pain from diabetic neuropathy. Complications of diabetes mellitus are more common where control of the disease is not optimal. By improving the control of the disease, both the neuropathy and the pain it can produce may be improved. The pain of diabetic neuropathy can frequently be controlled using analgesics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, topical capsaicin, and neuromodulation, either alone or in any combination.
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Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a separate disease entity that represents a complication of acute herpes zoster. PHN, involving aberrant somatosensory processing in the peripheral and/or central nervous system, is considered to be a chronic neuropathic pain, frequently unresponsive to all treatment modalities. Despite the clinical trial data demonstrating successful pain relief with several drug regimens, the pharmacologic management of neuropathic pain is difficult, particularly in PHN. ⋯ There is also consistent support for intravenous and topical lidocaine, intravenous ketamine, carbamazepine, and opioids. Gabapentin, a new anticonvulsant, can be considered a first-line oral medication for PHN based on the efficacy and safety results of a recently completed double-blind trial. In addition to positive effects on PHN, sleep, mood, and overall quality of life were significantly improved.
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Acta Neurol. Scand., Suppl.c · Jan 1999
ReviewGabapentin: a new tool in the treatment of neuropathic pain.
Human neuropathic pain remains a prevalent and pervasive problem in our society. Pharmacologically there is also no single, uniformly well-tolerated drug that is reliably helpful. ⋯ Gabapentin proved to be a significantly better analgesic than placebo, was well tolerated in the elderly population, and had a significant positive impact on several subjective and objective outcome measures. A discussion of the standard treatments and the studies supporting this new tool is the purpose of this review.