Toth, C. (2010). Substitution of gabapentin therapy with pregabalin therapy in neuropathic pain due to peripheral neuropathy. Pain Medicine, 11, 456–465.
The goal of the study was to determine utility of substitution of pregabalin for gabapentin therapy in relief of neuropathic pain.
All patients starting on gabapentin and all patients already using gabapentin as monotherapy were offered the choice of replacing their gabapentin with pregabalin. Comparison was made between the groups switched to pregabalin and a cohort group of patients with peripheral neuropathy and pain receiving only gabapentin without a switch to pregabalin.
The study was conducted at a single site in Canada.
Cohort study
Both gabapentin responder and nonresponders groups had additional pain relief of about 25% following substitution of pregabalin after 6 and 12 months. The percentage of improvement on the EQ-5D VAS was significant (p < 0.025).
Findings show that pregabalin may provide pain relief in this patient population.
The findings support that notion that both pregabalin and gabapentin may provide pain relief in some patients with peripheral neuropathy. The majority of cases were patients with diabetes. Application to patients with cancer is unclear.