Rheumatology Medical News about fibromyalgia syndrome; gabapentin; pregabalin

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Treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome with gabapentin and pregabalin – A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Pain, 06/23/09

Häuser W et al. - Study concludes that the usage of gabapentin (GPT) and pregabalin (PGB) can be considered for the treatment of pain and sleep disturbances in FMS patients. Because of some dose-dependent relevant side effects of both drugs the treatment should start with low dosage and then increased slowly with small dosages.

Methods

Aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the clinical relevance of GPT/PGB for the treatment of FMS
MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, www.clinicaltrials.org, the Cochrane Library (through October 2008), and the reference sections of original studies on GPT/PGB in FMS were searched
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the treatment of FMS with GPT and PGB were analyzed
6/127 RCTs studying 2422 subjects on treatment with GPT (1 study) or PGB (5 studies) and 1056 subjects on placebo with a median treatment duration of 11wks were included

Results

Strong evidence for a reduction of pain, improved sleep and improved health-related quality of life (HRQOL) but not for depressed mood
There was strong evidence for a non-substantial reduction of fatigue and of anxiety
The external validity of the studies was limited because pts with severe somatic and mental disorders were excluded

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