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	RESEARCH
	Analgesic drug combinations in acute and chronic pain     Impact of movement-evoked pain on postoperative functional recovery     Prescribing patterns and impact of therapy on quality of life in neuropathic pain     Effects of gabapentin on analgesic tolerance to opioids     Analgesic effects of excitatory amino acid (e.g. glutamate) modulation
	Effects of gabapentin on analgesic tolerance to opioids Preclinical studies suggest favourable analgesic interactions between opioids and the anticonvulsant, gabapentin. Furthermore, the antihyperalgesic and antineuropathic effects of gabapentin are similar to those of other agents (e.g. COX-2 inhibitors, NMDA antagonists, AMPA/kainate antagonists) which also suppress analgesic tolerance to opioids. With this in mind, we conducted a laboratory investigation on the effect of gabapentin on opioid tolerance. Results from this study demonstrated that systemic gabapentin prevents and reverses systemic morphine tolerance (Gilron, Biederman et. al., 2003). A subsequent study demonstrated that intrathecal gabapentin prevents spinal morphine tolerance suggesting that the spinal cord is an important site for gabapentin's effect on opioid tolerance (Hansen et al., 2004). We are currently pursuing other investigations to further understand the mechanistic basis for this phenomenon.
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