In females with chronic pelvic pain, gabapentin led to significant pain reductions at three and six months when compared to placebo.

A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to determine the safety and efficacy of gabapentin for the alleviation of chronic pelvic pain.

Databases like Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, Clinicalkey, PubMed, and Cochrane were comprehensively searched to find out studies assessing the effectiveness of placebo and gabapentin for the treatment of chronic pelvic pain. For analyzing the results and risk of bias, RevMan 5.4 was utilized. Notably, 2 researchers independently chose eligible studies and extracted related pain scores and adverse effects for carrying out the meta-analysis.

Overall, 4 randomized controlled trials and 425 subjects were incorporated in this meta-analysis. Compared to the placebo group, the gabapentin group exhibited considerably reduced average pain scores at three and six months.

Regarding the reduction of pain scores from the baseline, the findings revealed no profound difference between placebo and gabapentin. The occurrence of adverse effects (common or severe side effects) in the gabapentin arm was remarkably greater when compared to the placebo arm.

Though gabapentin reduced chronic pelvic pain, it was associated with a higher occurrence of adverse effects when compared to placebo.