Background and Aim: Hot flash affects approximately 75% of women at menopausal age and 40% of perimenopaursal ones. Those who experience hot flashes have higher rates of sleep and temper disturbances than women not affected by hot flashes. The present study was done to investigate whether treatment with an anticonvulsant drug such as gabapentin would be effective in reducing hot flash frequency and severity in menopausal women. Materials and Methods: In a clinical-trial study 100 postmenopausal women with an average of seven or more hot flashes per day, which were accompanied by sweating ,were randomly divided into case group(receiving 300 mg of gabapentin daily) and control group(receiving placebos) for a period of 8 weeks. The obtained data was analysed by means of statistical soft wares PASS 2004, SPSS, using statistical tests 2, t, and Mann- Whitney at P≤0.05 as the significant level. Results: After 8 weeks of treatment with gabapentin a reduction of 56% in hot flash frequency and 50% reduction in its composite score (frequency and severity combined into one score) from baseline were observed. In the control group (taking placebos) the decrease was 12% and 15% compared to before treatment respectively. After eight weeks of treatment the number of hot flashes was 7.88±0.4 and 9.4±0.52 in the case and control groups respectively the difference was statistically significant(P<0.001).Besides, after eight weeks of treatment composite score of hot flash(i.e its frequency and severity) was 10.6±0.66 and 16.98±0.84 in the case and control groups respectively, which was statistically significant(P<0.001).In the case group frequency and severity of hot flashes were obviously lower than their levels in the control group. Conclusion: Gabapentin is effective in treating hot flash and can be considered as an alternative therapy to reduce the disorder.

Keywords: Hot flashes, Gabapentin, Postmenopausal women

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