A recent study demonstrated that there is no major variation in pain reduction with gabapentin as compared to pregabalin. However, the incidence of dose discontinuation due to adverse effects was considerably high in the gabapentin group.

This study was performed to compare the reduction in pain and other related effects among patients who were prescribed with either pregabalin or gabapentin. There were 222 patients in the gabapentin group, and 30 patients in the pregabalin group.

The primary result was the considerable improvement in the pain within the six months of treatment with pregabalin or gabapentin. The secondary results include the incidence of reduction and then discontinuation of gabapentinoid dose due to adverse effects. There was no considerable variation in the primary results among the two groups. 

Table 1: Baseline sample characteristics

Table 2: Endpoint analysis

When using gabapentin or pregabalin in palliative care patients, there may be no difference in pain minimization. Even if both gabapentin and pregabalin are believed to be the first-line treatment choice for different neuropathic pain conditions, but pregabalin affords improved tolerability and a more attractive pill burden. However, there is a requisition of larger prospective studies to understand more differences between using these drugs in palliative care.