Efficacy of Gabapentin for Pain and Anxiety in Children

Abstract

Objective: To determine the efficacy of gabapentin for pain and anxiety control in children. Methodology: This was a descriptive cases series carried out at Tehsil Head Quarter Hospital, Chak Jhumra Faisalabad during July 2017 to December 2017. In this study, children of both genders with age range of 03 to 12 years were included. The cases were included that were undergoing for minor or major surgical procedures at pediatric departments. The cases allergic to drug and with no consent from the parent or guardian were excluded. The gabapentin was given in a dose of 15 mg/kg/day and they were assessed for the pain and anxiety. The efficacy in terms of pain was labelled as yes where the pain on visual analogue scale was less than 4 and in terms of anxiety when on anxiety scale the score was less than 4. The final results were assessed at 12 hours of post procedure. Results: In this study, total 100 children out of which 65 (65%) were males and 35 (35%) females with mean age of 6.34±2.21 years. The mean weight of the participants was 19.11±6.23 kg. The mean pain and anxiety score observed were 3.76±1.02 and 3.01±0.97 respectively. The efficacy in term of pain relief was seen in 73 (73%) and anxiety relief was seen in 78 (78%) of the cases with significant p values of 0.01 each. Conclusion: Gabapentin is significantly better drug, in reduction of pain and anxiety both in paediatric population.