Cited by 3,980Pain Mechanisms and TreatmentsPain Management and TreatmentPain Management and Opioid Use

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 80 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 45 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Pharmacotherapy for neuropathic pain in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access

Abstract

Background New drug treatments, clinical trials, and standards of quality for assessment of evidence justify an update of evidence-based recommendations for the pharmacological treatment of neuropathic pain. Using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE), we revised the Special Interest Group on Neuropathic Pain (NeuPSIG) recommendations for the pharmacotherapy of neuropathic pain based on the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis.Methods Between April, 2013, and January, 2014, NeuPSIG of the International Association for the Study of Pain did a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised, double-blind studies of oral and topical pharmacotherapy for neuropathic pain, including studies published in peer-reviewed journals since January, 1966, and unpublished trials retrieved from ClinicalTrials.gov and websites of pharmaceutical companies. We used number needed to treat (NNT) for 50% pain relief as a primary measure and assessed publication bias; NNT was calculated with the fixed-effects Mantel-Haenszel method.Findings 229 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Analysis of publication bias suggested a 10% overstatement of treatment effects. Studies published in peer-reviewed journals reported greater effects than did unpublished studies (r(2) 9·3%, p=0·009). Trial outcomes were generally modest: in particular, combined NNTs were 6·4 (95% CI 5·2-8·4) for serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, mainly including duloxetine (nine of 14 studies); 7·7 (6·5-9·4) for pregabalin; 7·2 (5·9-9·21) for gabapentin, including gabapentin extended release and enacarbil; and 10·6 (7·4-19·0) for capsaicin high-concentration patches. NNTs were lower for tricyclic antidepressants, strong opioids, tramadol, and botulinum toxin A, and undetermined for lidocaine patches. Based on GRADE, final quality of evidence was moderate or high for all treatments apart from lidocaine patches; tolerability and safety, and values and preferences were higher for topical drugs; and cost was lower for tricyclic antidepressants and tramadol. These findings permitted a strong recommendation for use and proposal as first-line treatment in neuropathic pain for tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, pregabalin, and gabapentin; a weak recommendation for use and proposal as second line for lidocaine patches, capsaicin high-concentration patches, and tramadol; and a weak recommendation for use and proposal as third line for strong opioids and botulinum toxin A. Topical agents and botulinum toxin A are recommended for peripheral neuropathic pain only.Interpretation Our results support a revision of the NeuPSIG recommendations for the pharmacotherapy of neuropathic pain. Inadequate response to drug treatments constitutes a substantial unmet need in patients with neuropathic pain. Modest efficacy, large placebo responses, heterogeneous diagnostic criteria, and poor phenotypic profiling probably account for moderate trial outcomes and should be taken into account in future studies.Funding NeuPSIG of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s1474-4422(14)70251-0

Cites

80 of 80 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

44 Own result · 24 Not checked yet · 8 Own interpretation · 5 No basis given · 3 Own method · 1 Supported

Verify all 44 references — free account
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 19
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 37
52 of 52
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Neuropathic pain is hard to treat.

    “Neuropathic pain is difficult to treat.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Large unpublished trials that were previously hidden can now be found on clinicaltrials.gov and pharmaceutical industry websites.

    “Previously hidden and unpublished large trials can now be identified on the web (clinicaltrials.gov, pharmaceutical industry websites)”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Topical agents are not known to be relevant for central neuropathic pain.

    “Topical agents have no known relevance for use in central neuropathic pain, and this is clearly stated in our recommendations.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Adequate diagnostic criteria for neuropathic pain are lacking.

    “Another issue concerns the lack of adequate diagnostic criteria for neuropathic pain (available on request for individual trials).”
4 of 4

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 80 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 3,980

Metadata

Authors
Finnerup, N. B., Attal, N., Haroutounian, S., McNicol, E., Baron, R., Dworkin, R. H., Gilron, I., Haanpää, M., Hansson, P., Jensen, T. S., Kamerman, P. R., Lund, K., Moore, A., Raja, S. N., Rice, A. S. C., Rowbotham, M., Sena, E., Siddall, P., Smith, B. H., & Wallace, M.
Affiliations
  • Aarhus University (DK)
  • Inserm (FR)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Tufts Medical Center (US)
  • University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (DE)
  • University of Rochester Medicine (US)
  • Queen's University (CA)
  • Helsinki University Hospital (FI)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
  • Churchill Hospital (GB)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health (AU)
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • University of Dundee (GB)
  • University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
Attal, Nadine
Venue
The Lancet Neurology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-02
Volume
14
Issue
2
Pages
162-173
ISSN
1474-4422 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2104818454
Cited by
3,980
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 316 · 2025: 363 · 2024: 399 · 2023: 362 · 2022: 367 · 2021: 447 · 2020: 384 · 2019: 367 · 2018: 336 · 2017: 305 · 2016: 228 · 2015: 99
FWCI
39.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Lancet Neurology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Medtronic
  • Sanofi Pasteur
  • Advanced Scientific Computing Research
  • Dunhill Medical Trust
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Biogen Idec
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • AbbVie
  • National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia
  • Novartis
  • International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association
  • Pfizer
  • Merck Sharp and Dohme
  • National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research
  • Astellas Pharma US
  • Wellcome Trust
  • AstraZeneca
  • Westminster Medical School Research Trust
  • Merck
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
  • Allergan
  • Eisai
  • Eli Lilly and Company
  • Boehringer Ingelheim
  • Bayer Schering
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
Keywords
neuropathic pain, pharmacotherapy, duloxetine, pregabalin, gabapentin, tricyclic antidepressants, tramadol, botulinum toxin type A, lidocaine patch, capsaicin patch, topical analgesics, number needed to treat, publication bias, treatment guidelines, first-line therapy, safety and tolerability, cost-effectiveness, adults, quality of evidence
MeSH terms
Adult, Analgesics, Opioid, Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic, Humans, Neuralgia, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Pain Management

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-09-28, under version 3 of the claim definition (prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-09-28 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review