Combination of Gabapentin and Vitamin B12 Compared with Gabapentin Monotherapy on Pain Improvement of Diabetic Neuropathy Patients

Abstract

Diabetic neuropathy is the most common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) occurring in 60-70% of the world's DM population, 40% of the DM population in Asia, and 41% of the DM population in Indonesia. The primary treatment of diabetic neuropathy pain in Indonesia is gabapentin and vitamin B12. The study aimed to compare pain improvements in diabetic neuropathy patients. The drug used was a combination of gabapentin and vitamin B12 and gabapentin monotherapy. For the pain degree measurement, we used the visual analogue scale (VAS). This experimental study was a pretest-posttest randomized control trial using a single-blind method at Dr. M. Salamun Air Force Hospital Bandung from March to May 2017. Samples were 44, type two diabetic neuropathy patients. The Mann-Whitney test to compare pain improvement between 2 groups applied. The results indicated there were differences in pain improvement between diabetic neuropathy patients with gabapentin and vitamin B12 combination compare to gabapentin monotherapy (p=0.002). This result showed a synergistic effect of gabapentin as an inhibitor of neurotransmitter and vitamin B12 expenditure as an improvement in peripheral nerve cells. This study concluded that gabapentin and vitamin B12 combination is better in improving pain in diabetic neuropathy patients compared to gabapentin monotherapy.