Jacob Blankmeyer Jackson Adams BIO 1615 11-12-2013 The Usage of Gabapentin In Reduction Of Neuropathy

A study was done in testing the ability of the pharmaceutical drug Gabapentin to reduce diabetic neuropathy. It was ran as a double crossed, placebo, blind-study; meaning that the volunteers were given either the drug Gabapentin (at a low dose) or a placebo pill that changed through the study. 40 patients were tested in this experiment, 19 given the Gabapentin and 21 with the placebo. All of the patients had been diagnosed with diabetes for over 6 years and suffered from neuropathy. 10 of the volunteers suffered from neuropathy in the feet, 19 in the feet as well as legs, and the final 11 suffered in the hands, feet, and legs. In the beginning of the experiment the volunteers completed many tests to measure their pain levels. One of them was the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS), this gives the patient a line from 0-10 asking them to say how high the levels of pain were for the last 24 hours. Along with the VAS they were asked to complete a Present Pain Intensity (PPI) and McQuill Pain Questionare (MPQ). The tests were run at the beginning and end of the study to show how much the pain levels have changed, proving what were actually reducing the pain if anything. Keeping in mind that the volunteers cut off other pain medications for the neuropathy. The volunteers started the treatments at a low dose of Gabapentin (300mg per day) and one placebo pill a day. For 6 weeks the Volunteers kept that dosage and stayed on the treatments (phase I). After phase one they had a 3 week washout period (phase II). During

Phase II the crossover was put into effect. Phase III consisted of upping the dosage of the placebo and the Gabapentin to one 300 mg tablet 3 times a day (900 mg per day). At the end of Phase III the volunteers were ran through the tests again and the results were pulled into consideration. Overall the MPQ mean had dropped by a mean of 8.2 for the Gabapentin patients and a 2.2 drop for the placebo. The VAS and PPI had not been significantly different between the Gabapentin and Placebo patients. With only a drop in the MPQ it gave the conclusion that at a small dose the Gabapentin was not an effective treatment to the diabetic neuopathy.

Works Sited: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry Willam A Rands "Gabapentin in the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy: a placebo controlled,
double blind, crossover trial"