Monday, March 16, 2009

Gabapentin

OK, I guess I have enough out there on my other blog for now. Time for another cup of tea and then some serious web browsing. I want to find out more about the Gabapentin, see how effective it might be. I've only been taking it for a week and just went to full dosage yesterday. It takes a couple of weeks, but still I wanted to know more…

And just like that, I found an article that proclaimed that Gabapentin worked in a test group.

Methods: Fifty-five patients with LSS, who had NIC as the primary complaint, were randomized into 2 groups. All patients were treated with therapeutic exercises, lumbosacral corset with steel bracing, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The treatment group received gabapentin orally in addition to the standard treatment.


Results: Gabapentin treatment resulted in an increase in the walking distance better than what was obtained with standard treatment (P = 0.001). Gabapentin-treated patients also showed improvements in pain scores (P = 0.006) and recovery of sensory deficit (P = 0.04), better than could be attained with the standard treatment.


Conclusion: Based on the results of our pilot study, extensive clinical studies are warranted to investigate the role of Gabapentin in the management of symptomatic LSS.

But, just as I was feeling good about what I had found, I found out that I could go no further in my reading. Page two of this study required that I be a 'health care professional' and log in. What's up with that? I'm the affected party. I'm the one with a need to know! Jerks!

OK, so I move on and browse some more, finding another article that tells me that Gabapentin probably won't work…

Link to first article

Link to second article

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