a placebo-controlled clinical trial with gabapentin in uremic itch treatment

background & aims: prevalence of uremic itch is 30% in patients on dialysis, and routine treatments are often ineffective.   materials & methods: we selected 40 hd patients and prescribed 100 mg gabapentin after each hd session for 20, and prescribe placebo for the other 20 patients. initial dose of gabapentin was 100mg after every thrice-weekly hd and altered the administered dose in the base of clinical improvement. severity of itching was measured with visual analogue scale (vas) in days 0, 2, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 after each hd session.   results: in all patients, rapid improvement in severity of itching was seen and vas was reduced to 1.5 from 7.3   conclusion: efficacy of gabapentin was significant and side effects were acceptable for our patients and us. therefore, gabapentin is an effective and safe drug for uremic itch treatment.