Gabapentin for chronic neuropathic pain in adults

Chronic neuropathic pain is defined as ‘chronic pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system’ (Nicholas et al, 2019). This pain is persistent or recurrent, lasting 3 months or longer. As a chronic condition, neuropathic pain negatively impacts an individual's function and quality of life, as well as carrying a high healthcare cost. Individuals with chronic neuropathic pain have more complaints of sleep disorders and mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression (Haanpää and Treede, 2010). Adequate treatment of neuropathic pain results in improvements in quality of life, sleep and fatigue, among other complaints (Moore et al, 2014).

Common conditions such as post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) and painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) are classified as chronic neuropathic pain and are associated with pain lasting for longer than 3 months, emotional distress, hampered daily functioning and disability. In order to reduce the pain and improve function, non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical measures are used for management. Non-pharmaceutical measures include comfort therapy, physical and occupational therapy, psychosocial/therapy counselling and neurostimulation. Pharmaceutical therapies that have been used to treat neuropathic pain include anti-epileptics, tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors.