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- Title
Chorea in a Chronic Pain Patient Using Gabapentin.
- Authors
Souzdalnitski, Dmitri; Chang, Anita Kumar; Guirguis, Maged
- Abstract
Background: Gabapentin increasingly is being used to treat chronic pain in addition to seizures, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Chorea has been reported as a potential side effect of gabapentin. Case Report: We report the case of a patient with chronic low back pain who was treated with a host of modalities, including gabapentin. After she increased her dose of gabapentin, she developed chorea of the upper extremities, neck, and head. With cessation of gabapentin, the bulk of her symptoms resolved within 24 hours, and symptoms completely resolved in the following months. Conclusions: Chorea is thought to appear when the basal ganglia are deregulated. Gabapentin interferes with gammaaminobutyric acid, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the motor pathway. Chorea associated with gabapentin has been reported in several case studies, but not at a dose as low as the patient took in this case.
- Subjects
GABAPENTIN; CHOREA; TREATMENT of backaches; CHRONIC pain treatment; CHRONIC disease treatment; THERAPEUTICS
- Publication
Ochsner Journal, 2014, Vol 14, Issue 2, p276
- ISSN
1524-5012
- Publication type
Case Study