Table 1.
Initial treatmentsa by pain condition
| Post Herpetic Neuralgia | Trigeminal Neuralgia | Phantom Limb Pain | Painful Diabetic Neuropathy | |
| Number with an initial treatment (% total with condition) | 1,414 (73.5) | 1,164 (62.5) | 40 (70.2) | 922 (49.4) |
| Duration of initial treatmentb in days mean (± SD) | 50.5 (126.3) | 90.0 (168.6) | 73.1 (192.9) | 77.1 (141.2) |
| Items prescribed on initial prescription as % of those treated | ||||
| 1 item | 56.2 | 72.6 | 52.5 | 63.7 |
| 2 items | 24.6 | 15.9 | 40.0 | 24.2 |
| 3 or more items | 19.2 | 11.5 | 7.5 | 12.1 |
| Five most common medications included in initial treatments, n (% treated) | ||||
| 1 | Amitriptyline hydrochloride 704 (49.8) | Carbamazepine 545 (46.8) | Amitriptyline hydrochloride 12 (30.0) | Amitriptyline hydrochloride 375 (40.7) |
| 2 | Codeine phosphate +paracetamol 248 (17.5) | Amitriptyline hydrochloride 304 (26.1) | Gabapentin 9 (22.5) | Gabapentin 154 (16.7) |
| 3 | Capsaicin 149 (10.5) | Codeine phosphate +paracetamol 131 (11.3) | Paracetamol 6 (15.0) | Codeine phosphate+ paracetamol 112 (12.1) |
| 4 | Co-dydramol 126 (8.9) | Gabapentin 99 (8.5) | Codeine phosphate+ paracetamol 5 (12.5) | Paracetamol 97 (10.5) |
| 5 | Carbamazepine 118 (8.3) | Co-proxamol 59 (5.1) | Carbamazepine 3 (7.5) | Co-dydramol 54 (5.9) |
aStarted within 28 days of the first record of the disease. bDuration of initial treatment in days, ignoring titration of dose. SD, standard deviations