Comparison of Pregabalin- Methylcobalamin with Gabapentin- Methylcobalamin Therapy in Diabetic Neuropathy: A Prospective Study on Quality of Life

Diabetic neuropathy has been reported as the most common complication of Diabetes mellitus. The antiepileptic agents along with the neurotrophic agents have been widely used for diabetic neuropathy. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the mostly prescribing Pregabalin and Gabapentin with methylcobalamin. It was a prospective study including 200 patients considering 100 in each group. The primary outcome measure was the neuropathic pain scale. Secondary measure included the RAND36 measuring quality of life. Among the total cases collected, females were the highly affected population and patients under the age group of 60-69 years were highly prevalent. The majority of the patients had numbness and aching type of pain distributed in the lower extremities involving foot, toes,hip, leg etc. Hyperglycemia was considered as the major cause of DN. For the primary outcome variable, change in the NPS score was considered. The mean pain score at baseline was almost similar between treatment groups. Among both groups pain score was reduced at the end of the study indicating the pain relieving effect of both therapy. The change in QoL from baseline to the final week was measured in the RAND36 questionnaire. Significant improvement in QoL was reported in both treatment groups. The difference in this improvement among both groups shows a discrepancy. It may be due to the adverse reactions of the therapy. These discrepancies leave us with an equivocal result with regard to the efficacy of treatment groups in improving the QoL.