Headache and neck pain: Gabapentin as a possible treatment

Abstract

Pain is a common situation and it is one of the most frequent presenting symptoms of different pathologies. Treating pain could be a precise request to the doctor, from the patient and his caregiver. Management of neuropathic pain is particularly challenging and many patients presenting with chronic or subacute head and neck pain need a multidisciplinary approach. The principal targets of effective pain control are to ameliorate nociception, to reduce threshold of pain sensation and to improve quality of life. We offer a panoramic view of nociception, from a central perspective, and discuss various pharmacological options available to treat headache and neck pain. We also debate the role of a new antiepileptic drug, gabapentin, in the management of headache and neck pain. It is now considered to be an emergent treatment for pain syndrome. We delineate its pharmacological, laboratory and clinical profiles, with a review of the world literature.