Pregabalin – mono- or adjuvant therapy for somatoform disorders

Somatoform disorders (SD) represent complex interaction between mind and body, where physical symptom is a symptom of a mental disorder. The efficacy estimation of pregabalin (PG) versus combination of PG and antidepressants (AD) in patient with SD after long-term treatment with partial response to various AD therapies (SSRI, SNRI, MAOI, TCAs, SARIs, SNDIs). These nine months, prospective, open-label study involved 31 patients diagnosed by standard clinical interview as F45 and comorbid diagnosis F41, F32, F33 or F34 according to ICD-10 criteria. There were two groups: experimental group (EG) on PG-15 patients and control group (CG) on PG+AD-16 patients. The assessment was made by 100mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) on the baseline and follow ups were made on seventh day, after one, two and nine months. Daily PG dose ranged from 150–300mg. Within both groups there was highly significant difference in the decline of scores on the VAS and CGI in all repeated measurements, except for CGI in both groups between second and ninth month-there was no statistical difference, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test: CGI eg P =0.102, CGI cg P =0.317. Comparing results between CG and EG on both scales, there were no statistically significant differences in all measurements. At the end of the study, Mann-Whitney test for CGI P =0.560 and VAS P =0.705 and no difference in the effects of the drugs between EG and CG on both scales CGI P =0.467, VAS P =0.860. Efficacy of PG is equal as PG+AD combinations in SD treatments.