Evaluation of the efficacy of pregabalin on the treatment of patients with lumbosacral radiculopathy referring to Shahid Mofattah Yasuj Special Clinic

Background: Radiculopathy is defined as nerve root involvement and pressured that causes spinal pain. The problems of the lumbar and cervical disk herniation and diffusion pains are the most common problems in society so that 85% of people take low back pain at least once their life. These problems can be caused by herniated disc or spinal canal stenosis in the lumbar and cervical regions. The common treatment of this pain is resting and the use of an nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Pregabalin is one of the anti-seizure and analgesic drugs, which is widely used in the treatment of neuropathic pain and chronic radiculopathy in the form of monotherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of pregabalin drug therapy with common treatment (a NSAIDs) compared to the control group in lumbar radiculopathy.  Methods: In this randomized, single-blind randomized clinical trial, 25 to 55 years old patients with lumbar radiculopathy were referred to Shahid Mofatteh specialty clinic in Yasuj, were divided into two groups of 45, treatment and control. Both age and sex in two groups were omogenized. In treatment group, resting with celecoxib every 12 hours, plus 75 mg per day pregabalin and in control group, resting with celecoxib every 12 hours, plus 75 mg per day pregabalin placebo were prescribed.  Patients' data were collected through a pain assessment questionnaire and Visual Analog pain Scale (VAS). After 8 weeks of follow up, the questionnaires were re-examined and data analyzed with paired and unpaired T test, and SPSS17 software was used. Results: Pain severity was significantly reduced in both groups after treatment based on VAS score (P value < 0.05) but the two groups were not significantly different compared to each other (P value > 0.05). The effect of pregabalin on age, weight, pain location, pain quality and underlying disease did not show significant difference (P value > 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the efficacy of administration of pregabalin with NSAID compared to NSAID use in patients with lumbar spinal radiculopathy in decreasing pain intensity as well as its effectiveness in relation to age, weight, gender, underlying diseases and quality There was no significant difference in pain. Long-term and high-dose treatments are thought to be needed in chronic pain condition and central sensitization. This study showed that the efficacy of pregabalin and NSAIDS in comparison with NSAID use in patients with lumbar radiculopathy with spinal origin was not significantly different in reducing pain severity and their effectiveness compared to age, weight, sex, presence of underlying diseases and quality of pain. It seems that in the diseases causing chronic pain and central sensitization, it is necessary to provide long-term treatment with a higher dose.