Pain
-
The purpose of this review was to identify and analyze the controlled clinical trial data for peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP) and complex regional pain syndromes (CRPS). A total of 72 articles were found, which included 92 controlled drug trials using 48 different treatments. The methods of these studies were critically reviewed and the results summarized and compared. ⋯ The methods scores were higher (P < 0.01) for the PNP trials (66.2 +/- 1.5, n = 66) than the CRPS trials (57.6 +/- 2.9, n = 26). The CRPS trials tended to use less subjects and were less likely to use placebo controls, double-blinding, or perform statistical tests for differences in outcome measures between groups. There was almost no overlap in the controlled trial literature between treatments for PNP and CRPS, and treatments used in both conditions (intravenous phentolamine and epidural clonidine) had similar results.