[Evidence-based pharmacotherapy of neuropathic pain syndromes]

Neuropathic pain can severely reduce quality of life. Double blind, placebo controlled studies confirm the efficacy of the treatment of painful neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia and trigeminal neuralgia with tricyclic antidepressants, ion channel blockers, opioids and lipoic acid. The numbers-needed-to-treat (NNT) with monotherapy to achieve pain reduction of at least 50% are in the range of 2 to 4. Recent studies indicate that patients can benefit from combinations of opioids and tricyclic antidepressants or opioids and gabapentin.