This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Randomized Controlled Trial  • Prognosis/ Outcomes  • Hearing Loss/ Deafness  • Alert me on articles by topic

Is Gabapentin Effective?

Jay F. Piccirillo, MD; Joshua Finnell, MA; Anna Vlahiotis, MA; Richard A. Chole, MD; Edward Spitznagel Jr, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133(4):390-397.

Objective  To assess the therapeutic benefit of gabapentin (Neurontin) for subjective idiopathic troublesome tinnitus.

Design  An 8-week, double-blind, randomized clinical trial.

Setting  Academic otolaryngology clinic in St Louis, Mo.

Subjects  One hundred thirty-five subjects with severe idiopathic subjective tinnitus of 6 months' duration or longer.

Intervention  Gabapentin, at a maintenance dosage of 900 to 3600 mg/d for 8 weeks, or lactose placebo.

Main Outcome Measure  Change in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score from baseline to the study end point.

Results  The overall change in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score for the entire cohort from baseline to week 8 was 11.2; the change among the 59 subjects randomized to the gabapentin arm was 11.3 and the change among the 56 subjects in the placebo arm was 11.0. The difference was 0.03 (95% confidence interval, –5.5 to 6.2; P = .91).

Conclusion  Gabapentin is no more effective than placebo for the relief of idiopathic subjective tinnitus.

Trial Registration  clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00317850

Author Affiliations: Division of Clinical Outcomes Research, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (Drs Piccirillo and Chole, Mr Finnell, and Ms Vlahiotis), and Division of Biostatistics (Dr Spitznagel), Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo.