Morphine and gabapentin reduced neuropathic pain by 45 per cent.
Dr. Ian Gilron, an anesthesiologist at Queen’s University in Ontario studied using painkillers morphine and gabapentin in patients with diabetes or shingles-related pain. On their own, each drug reduced pain by about one-quarter or one-third. Used together, they worked simultaneously on different areas of the brain, and reduced neuropathic pain by 45 per cent.In addition, patients didn’t require as much medication to get an effect.
The results of Gilron’s study will be published on April 5, 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine.