title: The Efficacy of Gabapentin in Patients with Central Post-stroke Pain.
abstract: Thalamic pain syndrome, a type of central post-stroke pain (CPSP), may develops after a hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke and results in impairment of the thalamus. There is limited experience about gabapentin in treatment of central pains like CPSP. In a prospective observational study, the intensity of pain was recorded using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) at the entrance to the study. Patients eligible for treating with gabapentin, received gabapentin 300 mg twice-daily. The pain intensity was measured at entrance to the study and after one month using NRS. Decrease of 3 points from the initial NRS considered being clinically significant. From a total of 180 primarily screened patients, 84 (44 men and 40 women) were recruited. There was a significant difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment NRS (5.9 ± 2.51 vs. 4.7 ± 3.01; 95% CI: 0.442-1.962, p = 0.002). Fisher's exact test showed no statistically significant effect of clinical and demographic characteristics of patients on their therapeutic response to gabapentin. Given the safety, efficacy, well tolerability and lack of interaction with other drugs we suggest gabapentin to be more considered as a first line therapy or as add-on therapy for reducing the pain severity in patients with thalamic syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Emam Hossein Medical and Educational Center , Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hesami
authors.affiliation: Loghman Medical and Educational Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gharagozli
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Emam Hossein Medical and Educational Center , Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Beladimoghadam
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Emam Hossein Medical and Educational Center , Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farhad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Assarzadegan
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Emam Hossein Medical and Educational Center , Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Behnam
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mansouri
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ; Pharmaceutical Care Unit, Emam Hossein Medical and Educational Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sistanizad
keywords: Central nervous system; Central post stroke pain; Cerebrovascular accident; Gabapentin