Non-hormone drug decreases hot flashes

By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women suffering from hot flashes might find relief with a drug called gabapentin, investigators report.

The findings come from a study of 113 women who were taking an antidepressant to deal with hot flashes but weren't getting much benefit.

Dr. Charles L. Loprinzi from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues wanted to see if gabapentin would help. The drug is the active ingredient in Neurontin, which is most commonly used to treat nerve pain and other neurological conditions, but it has been shown to have some effect on hot flashes.

The physicians investigated whether it's better to give gabapentin alone or with the antidepressant by having half the participants continue on their antidepressant therapy while taking gabapentin.

The reductions in hot flash severity and how frequently they occurred after four weeks of treatment did not differ significantly between the gabapentin group and the gabapentin-plus-antidepressant group, the investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Hot flash frequency declined by about half in both groups.

Similarly, quality-of-life scores were much the same in the two treatment groups.

Summing up, Loprinzi told Reuters Health, "If an antidepressant does not work well enough and a decision is to move on to gabapentin, it doesn't appear to be helpful to continue both drugs."

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, January 20, 2007.