Clonazepam: An Old “New” Therapy for the Treatment of Phantom Limb Pain—A Brief Report of a Retrospective Study

• Main Authors: Stefano Brunelli, Luca Pratesi, Marco Traballesi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2021-01-01
• Series: BioMed Research International
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/9966059

The purpose of this study is to describe the results of clonazepam use in the treatment of phantom limb pain (PLP). Although the efficacy of clonazepam on PLP has been reported in 1996, there are no subsequent known studies that confirmed this report. A consecutive sample of 32 patients who suffered from PLP after recent lower limb amputation was studied based on clinical charts. Wilcoxon’s signed rank test was used to compare Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) values before and after the treatment with clonazepam. Twenty-three amputees were treated only with clonazepam, without adding other drugs or targeted rehabilitation treatments. The median NRS before the treatment with clonazepam was 7 (2), the median NRS after 31±5 days of treatment was 3 (3.5) (p<0.0001). The average dosage of clonazepam used was 1.5±1 mg per day. The results suggest that clonazepam has to be considered as an alternative drug for PLP treatment.