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Several studies have demonstrated that patients with fibromyalgia have abnormal central nervous system pain processing. Clinically, patients typically experience chronic hyperalgesia as well as pain from stimuli that are normally not noxious — just as do patients with diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and migraine. Gabapentin is effective in treating those disorders.
A multi-institutional team performed a double-blind randomized controlled trial of gabapentin (1200–2400 mg/day) or placebo in 150 patients with fibromyalgia. During the 12-week study, more patients in the active treatment group reached the predefined endpoint of clinically significant pain relief (51% vs. 31%). The gabapentin-treated patients also had superior scores…