Pelvic pain drug ‘no more effective than placebo’ study finds

A drug regularly used to treat chronic pelvic pain in women has been found to be no more effective than a placebo, a new study has found.

As a result of the findings researchers are now recommending against doctors routinely prescribing the drug gabapentin for women with the condition.

Chronic pelvic pain affects up to 24 per cent of women worldwide to varying degrees, while it is estimated as many as one million in the UK are affected by the condition.

Professor Andrew Horne, lead researcher from the University of Edinburgh, said: “We have been prescribing this drug for many years with little evidence of its effectiveness.

“As a result of our study, we can confidently conclude that gabapentin is not effective for chronic pelvic pain in women where no cause has been identified. More research is needed to explore if other therapies can help instead.”

Gabapentin is used to manage many forms of chronic pain. In two separate surveys, 74 per cent of GPS and 92 per cent of gynaecologists said that they would consider prescribing the drug for a patient experiencing chronic pelvic pain.

Researchers from the universities of Edinburgh, Birmingham, Oxford and Nottingham tested the drug’s effectiveness in treating chronic pelvic pain through a randomised clinical trial involving 306 women with the condition where there was no known underlying cause.

Half the women received gab a pen tin and the other half received a placebo for 16 weeks. Neither group nor the prescribing clinicians knew what they were receiving.

The women were asked to rate their average pain and worst pain, using a scale from zero to ten, on a weekly basis. Scores were then averaged for the drug and placebo groups.

There search team found there was very little difference between the reported pain in both groups. However, the group that received gabap-entin reported experiencing more side-effects – including dizziness, drowsiness and changes of mood – than the placebo group.

The researchers said that gabapentin should no longer be considered in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain where no cause has been identified and that other avenues of treatment should be explored.

Andy S hen nan, prof essor of obstetrics, and clinical director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network in South London, said: “It is vital that large studies like this help answer these important health questions to guide management of these debilitating and common conditions.”