Gabapentin may offer relief for women suffering from hot flashes

Women troubled with hot flashes and unwilling to take hormones may have an alternative in gabapentin, a drug used to treat seizures and shingles pain.

For 12 weeks, 59 women participating in a University of Rochester study took either gabapentin, 900 milligrams a day, or a placebo. The frequency and severity of hot flashes were reduced by 54% in the women taking gabapentin, compared with a 31% reduction in the women who took a placebo.

Gabapentin did cause side effects in about half the women, and four dropped out of the study because of sleepiness, dizziness, rash or leg swelling. Starting at a low dose and gradually increasing it over two weeks should minimize the side effects, says Thomas J. Guttuso Jr., the lead author of the study and a neurologist at the University’s Strong Memorial Hospital. How gabapentin works to relieve hot flashes is not known, but the researchers say it may affect chemical messengers in an area of the brain that regulates temperature. The study was published in the February issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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Dianne Partie Lange