Zeitschrift für Suchtforschung und -therapie

Abstrakt

A Randomized Double-Blind Pilot Trial of Gabapentin versus Placebo to Relieve Iranian Crack-Related Withdrawal Pain

Behnaz Behnam, Nadia Saghafi, Raheb Ghorbani, Mina Dianak Shoori and Mehrdad Sheikhvatan

Objectives:
Gabapentin seems to be a safe and well tolerated medication for treating cocaine dependence. This study examined the efficacy of gabapentin for withdrawal-related pain relief due to crack (the Iranian crack containing condensed heroin) use.
Methods:
Sixty subjects were recruited from either an inpatient psychiatric ward of Fatemieh hospital in semnan and randomized to either placebo (n=30) or gabapentin (1800 mg/day) (n=30) for 7 days, balanced for gender. Subjective Opioid Withdrawal Scale was measured as a self-administered scale for grading body pain at baseline, and days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Results:
Mean of pain score had a significant decreasing trend in both gabapentin and placebo groups. Pain severity during the first six days of detoxification was significantly lower in gabapentin group compared with the controls, while the severity of pain based on SOWS scale was measured similar in the two groups at seventh day of trial.
Conclusion:
We could confirm the effective role of gabapentin in removing Iranian crack-related withdrawal pain. However, this potential effect on pain removing was only observed in first six days of drug administration.