Is gabapentin effective and safe in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain in women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction and hypothesis Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) affects 2.1–24% of women, causing physical and psychological damage to women around the world. Based on the efficacy of gabapentin in the treatment of chronic pain, we conducted this study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of gabapentin in reducing pain in women with CPP.

Systematic searches were performed in the electronic databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, and Clinicalkey databases. Studies focused on comparing the efficacy of gabapentin and placebo in the treatment of female CPP patients were included. RevMan 5.4 was used to analyze the results and risk of bias. Two investigators independently selected eligible studies and extracted related pain scores and side effects for meta-analysis.

In total, 4 RCTs were enrolled in the meta-analysis, totaling 425 patients. Among patients receiving gabapentin, the average pain scores in 3 and 6 months were significantly lower than those in the placebo group(p < 0.00001). The results showed that there was no statistical difference between gabapentin and placebo in the reduction of pain scores from baseline(p = 0.41). The incidence of side effects in the gabapentin group was significantly higher than that in the placebo group (p < 0.00001).

This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that for women with CPP, gabapentin was significantly different from placebo in average pain scores at 3 and 6 months. However, the two drugs did not differ in the reduction in pain scores from baseline. Gabapentin can bring more significant side effects, whether they are common side effects or serious side effects. Similar content being viewed by others Abbreviations - BMI: - Body mass index - CPP: - Chronic pelvic pain - fMRI: - Functional magnetic resonance imaging - NR: - Not recorded - NRS: - Numerical rating scale - PRISMA: - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses - SD: - Standard deviation - VAS: - Visual analogue scale

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Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions Y.W.H. helped to design the study, conduct the study, analyze the data, and write the manuscript. Y.W.H. is also the first author and is responsible for archiving the study files. X.H.Z. helped to conduct the study, analyze the data, and write the manuscript. W.H.M. is the corresponding author, mainly responsible for the inspection of the study, and final approval of the article. Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflicts of interest This article did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Additional information Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary information ESM 1 (download DOCX ) (DOCX 16 kb) ESM 2 (download DOCX ) (DOCX 32 kb) Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article He, Y., Zhuang, X. & Ma, W. Is gabapentin effective and safe in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain in women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int Urogynecol J 33, 1071–1081 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-021-05017-0 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-021-05017-0