Gabapentin raises human brain GABA within thirty minutes

Introduction. Gabapentin is a recently introduced antiepileptic drug [l]. Gabapentin is now widely prescribed for the management of neuropathic pain [2]. Designed to mimic GABA, its mechanism c! action remains elusive [3]. Daily use of gabapentin is associated with above normal occipital lobe GABA in those patients whose seizure control improved [4, 51. Vigabatrin is one of the most potent of the newer antiepileptic drugs [6]. It is designed to irreversibly inhibit the main enzyme which metabolizes GABA, GABA-transaminase. The first dose of vigabatrin increases brain GABA within one hour and levels remain elevated for several days [7, 81. The currents experiments were designed to measure the initial brain GABA response to gabapentin in patients with refractory complex partial seizures. The rise in brain GABA in response to gabapentin is compared with the response measured after the first dose of vigabatrin in a similar group of patients [8].