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Pregabalin Appears Benefit Patients With Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: Presented at WIP

BARCELONA, SPAIN -- September 22, 2004 - Pfizer Inc's pregabalin was shown to be associated with significant improvements in health related quality of life measures of patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), according to data presented at the World Institute of Pain meeting. In a separate presentation, survey data showed that neuropathic pain severity not only interferes with daily functioning, but contributes to more frequent physician visits.

Painful DPN (a complication of diabetes) and PHN (a complication of shingles) are two of the most common forms of neuropathic pain, often characterized by sensations of burning, stabbing, numbness or tingling either in the feet or legs (for DPN) or in the area where the shingles rash occurred (for PHN).

In a pooled analysis of ten randomized trials involving 2,207 DPN and PHN patients, pregabalin-treated patients exhibited statistically significant improvement across multiple health related quality of life domains using a standard health survey. The survey was administered at baseline and termination of the controlled trials to patients receiving pregabalin (150, 300 or 600mg/day) and those on placebo.

"In addition to causing physical distress, neuropathic pain produces significant emotional distress to patients who are not managed appropriately," said Dr. Robert Dworkin, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York. "These data confirm that pregabalin provides a new treatment option that may bring relief to the millions suffering with this pain."

In July, Pfizer received European Commission approval to market pregabalin in EU member states for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain and as adjunctive therapy for partial seizures without or without secondary generalization.

In another poster presentation at the Congress, data showed that neuropathic pain patients report that their pain interferes with their daily functioning and is associated with frequent outpatient visits.

A survey of 602 neuropathic pain patients in six European countries examined pain severity, functioning and health resource utilization using standard rating scales. Patients were recruited from community-based general practitioners.

Results from the survey show that although 93 percent of patients were taking prescription medications for their neuropathic pain, most patients still reported moderate-to-severe pain. A majority of those taking pain medications were prescribed analgesics (71 percent) such as NSAIDs and Cox 2s and almost half (51 percent) were prescribed anti-epileptics. Twenty-nine percent of patients were prescribed antidepressants and 15 percent were prescribed sedative/hypnotics.

Neuropathic pain affected employment status for 43 percent of patients and significantly impacted outpatient health care utilization: 44 percent reported at least two or more physician visits during the past month. The greater the pain severity a person reported, the greater the employment disruption and the number of physician visits.

"These data present the impact of neuropathic pain on the lives of patients, as well as the need for better diagnosis and pain management," said Dr. David Rowbotham, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, United Kingdom.

Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain caused by injury or disease of the peripheral or central nervous system and is often under diagnosed. The pain can last indefinitely, may escalate over time and can result in pain-related sleep interference, depression, anxiety and, in some cases, severe disability.



SOURCE: Pfizer Inc

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