Antiepileptic drugs for chronic neuropathic pain

Abstract

Neuropathic pain is caused by damage or disease that affects the somatosensory nervous system, where the nerves react abnormal to small or no stimuli at all and produces pain. It is less understood than nociceptive pain arising from a healthy nervous system and hence is a notoriously hard condition to treat. Neuropathic pain tends to be chronic with an average duration of 7 years [1]. The cost to society and the implications for the patient in regard to comorbidity tends to be severe [2].

I decided to write a topical review to look closer at what evidence there is for the most commonly used antiepileptic drugs in the treatment of neuropathic pain (gabapentin, pregabalin, clonazepam, lacosamide, oxcarbazepine, phenytoin, valproic acid and zonisamide), what efficacy and what adverse effects one can expect.