Gabapentin: A new tool in the treatment of neuropathic pain

Human neuropathic pain remains a prevalent and pervasive problem in our soc iety. Pharmacologically there is also no single, uniformly well-tolerated d rug that is reliably helpful. Gabapentin has emerged as a useful new tool b ased on the results of two large multicenter trials in models of human neur opathy. Gabapentin proved to be a significantly better analgesic than place bo, was well tolerated in the elderly population, and had a significant pos itive impact on several subjective and objective outcome measures. A discus sion of the standard treatments and the studies supporting this new tool is the purpose of this review.