Pandya, K.J., Morrow, G.R., Roscoe, J.A., Zhao, H., Hickok, J.T., Pajon, E., … Flynn, P.J. (2005). Gabapentin for hot flashes in 420 women with breast cancer: A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Lancet, 366, 818–824.
Assess efficacy of gabapentin in controlling hot flashes in women with breast cancer
Patients were randomized to placebo, gabapentin 300 mg/day, or gabapentin 300 mg three times a day for eight weeks.
University community clinic oncology program
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multi-institutional trial.
Decreases in hot flash severity scores between baseline and weeks 4 and 8, respectively were: 21% and 15% in the placebo group; 33% and 31% in the group assigned gabapentin 300 mg; and 49% and 46% in the group assigned gabapentin 900 mg. The differences between the groups were significant (p = 0.0001 at four weeks and p = 0.007 at eight weeks by analysis of covariance for overall treatment effect).
Gabapentin was effective in control of hot flashes at a dose of 900 mg/day but not at a dose of 300 mg/day.