Gabapentin: little support for effectiveness of popular pain management drug

Pain is a frequent problem for a good portion of individuals living with paralysis and can interfere significantly with daily life. There are many types of pain associated with spinal cord injury with varying frequency, duration, severity and location, including areas where there is little to no feeling. Those who experience it continually are often at their wit’s end coming up with a viable way of managing it. A popular medication that has somehow found its way to managing such pain for those with SCI is Gabapentin but a recent report has revealed that there is very little research that could show its effectiveness.

Gabapentin is approved for treating seizures and nerve pain that can happen after shingles, yet 95 percent of the time it’s used for other conditions. But recent studies and data are now questioning Gabapentin's role as a benign catch-all. They're finding that, when used along with other drugs, Gabapentin does have the potential to be misused, and is linked to an increased risk of death when combined with opioids — a connection that's particularly alarming since it's so often prescribed for pain.

You can read more about this report HERE.

To learn more about pain management in SCI, you can read the Reeve Foundation’s resource page HERE.