Alpha Lipoic Acid, Gabapentin and its combination in the control of the symptoms of Burning Mouth Syndrome

Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is characterized by a burning sensation in the tongue or other oral sites, usually in the absence of clinical and laboratory findings. OBJETIVES: To determine the efficacy of Alpha Lipoic Acid and Gabapentin, used individually or both together for the control of BMS syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A controlled clinic assay of 120 patients who attended in the Oral Medicine II Department of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Nacional University of Rosario was carried out. All the patients were volunteers and presented idiopathic BMS with more than three months of evolution. It was included (n=120) who didn`t have any kind of mucosa pathology or sistemic diseases. Patients were divided in four groups and the experiment lasts at 60 days. The study was double blind and randomly the groups were treated as follows: Group A (n=20) 600 mg/day of Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA); Grupo B (n=20) 300 mg/day of Gabapentin(GABA); Group C (n=20) Combination of A + B and Group D (n=60) 100 mg/day of cellulose starch as placebo. RESULTS: After 60 days of treatment, positives changes were founded in 11/20 patients, (55%) treated with ALA; in 10/20 (50%) treated with GABA; in 14/20 (70%) treated with the combination of both drugs. 9/60 (15%) in patients treated with placebo with statistic significance (P<0,001). CONCLUSIONS: The administration of these drugs constitute an effective treatment for the decrease of burning sensation in patients with BMS. The most effective results were obtained from Group C (Combination), with 70% of burning sensation relief and these patients, have 13 more posibilities of having improvement with respect of the control group.
Key Words: Burning Mouth Syndrome, Treatment, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Gabapentin.