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Pain reduction in the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP) has been maintained for more than six months by duloxetine hydrochloride, according to data presented at the 12th World Congress on Pain in Glasgow.
It followed a long-term study of the effect of duloxetine 60mg taken once daily by 216 patients. Over an initial eight-week period, 53% experienced clinically significant improvement in pain reduction as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) 24-hour average pain rating.
Final results showed that pain reduction was maintained in 74.8% of the sustained responders with 60mg duloxetine over the full study period of 26 weeks.
“DPNP is a chronic, potentially disabling, condition requiring treatment over a long period of time,” said Vladimir Skljarevski, lead author of the study and a neurologist and medical fellow at Lilly Research Laboratories.
“This study showed duloxetine reduced pain over a six-month period, making this the longest data analysis of duloxetine for the treatment of DPNP.”
During the course of the eight-week acute-therapy and 26-week maintenance-therapy periods, the most common side-effects were nausea, somnolence, hyperhydrosis (excessive sweating), dry mouth, anorexia, asthenia (weakness), fatigue and headache.
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