Gabapentin for Adults with Neuropathic Pain: A Review of the Clinical Effectiveness

This report serves as an update to CADTH’s 2015 and 2016 Rapid Response reports. These previous reports reviewed studies relating to neuropathic pain (not specific to any conditions) and two studies relating to human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)-associated neuropathic pain, respectively. In the HIV-associated neuropathic pain report, the review suggested that gabapentin may improve pain and sleep disturbances, however the small sample size of each study and limitations in the analyses conducted prevent strong conclusions. In the 2016 report, most of the available randomized control trial (RCT) data pertained to diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), it was concluded that for DPN there was greater reduction in neuropathic pain and increased risk of adverse events associated with gabapentin compared with placebo. For other conditions there were limited number of RCTs and for some conditions the evidence was from single RCTs.