A single dose of gabapentin is twice as effective as placebo in reducing pain and other symptoms associated with shingles, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Neurology. Shingles is a painful rash caused by re-activation in nerve tissue of the chickenpox virus acquired earlier in life, Reuters reported. The inflammation and neuro-destructive effects associated with shingles often produces severe pain, which is completely disabling in some cases, coauthor Dr. Karin Lottrup Petersen noted in comments to Reuters Health. Controlling this pain "is an important medical problem on its own," she said. Petersen and her colleague, Dr. James D. Barry, of the University of California, San Francisco, studied 26 patients with shingles-related pain. The team randomly assigned the participants to a single 900-milligram dose of gabapentin or placebo, and then switched them to the other treatment, separated by at least 24 hours. The researchers measured pain before treatment and at 30-minute intervals thereafter for 6 hours. All of the patients completed the study. --more 2238 Local Time 1938 GMT
