Somatoform Disorders-a New Target for Pregabalin

Abstract

Somatoform Disorders (SD) represent a big clinical challenge regarding frequent medical assistance demand, functional impairment and partial pharmacotherapy response.

The study objective was to ascertain the efficacy and tolerability of pregabalin (PG) in patients with SD and patients with comorbid diagnoses as follows: F41.1, F32, F33 or F34 and F45 with partial response to antidepressant therapy (SSRI, SNRI, MAOI, TCAs, SARIs, SNDIs) after long-term treatment.

This was prospective, nine months, open-label study. The sample consisted of 31 patients with SD diagnosed as F45 according to ICD-10 criteria by standard clinical interview. The assessment was made by the following instruments: 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) which assessed physical symptom severity and Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI). The baseline assessment was done, while follow up was made after seventh day, one, two and nine months. Patients were treated with PG (dose ranged from 150 to 300 mg per day), as monotherapy or in combination with antidepressant and/or benzodiazepines (BZD) which were previously taken.

At the end of the study 18 patients (58.06%) self-rated their severity as no pain, while 8 (25.81%) rated as mild pain using VAS. After nine months 26 patients (83.87%) showed an overall improvement (CGI). Five patients (16.13%) had side effects (feeling of dizziness in initial PG treatment phase), which was the reason for the PG discontinuation in three patients (9.67%).

High efficiency, absence of serious side effects and good tolerability of pregabalin opens a new opportunity for the successful treatment of patients with SD.