JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v6i1.2511 jpsim.v6i1.2511 Original Research Comparison between the Efficacy of Duloxetine and Amitriptyline in the Management of Painful Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized Control Trial Murtaza Ghulam Ahmad Israr Bano Safia safiabano207@gmail.com * Hasnat Muhammad Husnain Muhammad Gujranwala Medical College/District Headquarter Teaching Hospital, Gujranwala Department of Neurology, Mayo Hospital, Lahore *Correspondence: Safia Bano (safiabano207@gmail.com) 10 03 2025 2025 6 1 52 55 10 05 2024 09 02 2025 22 02 2025 Copyright © 2025 The Author(s) 2025 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

To compare the efficacy of duloxetine and amitriptyline in reducing pain based on VAS in patients with diabetic distal painful neuropathy and to compare the safety profile in terms of fewer adverse effects.

 Methodology

This Randomized control trial was done at Mayo Hospital Lahore for a duration of 6 months from June 2023 to December 2023. After obtaining IRB approval and meeting the inclusion criteria, 106 patients were selected and divided into two groups; A and B, and given duloxetine and amitriptyline respectively. Pain assessment was done in both groups using the VAS score system at 3, 6 and 12 weeks and adverse effects were documented based on subjective assessment by the patients.

 Results

Duloxetine resulted in a reduced intensity from a mean of 3.91 ± 0.08 to 1.79 ± 0.06 while amitriptyline resulted in decrease in pain from 3.89 ± 0.06 to 2.45 ± 0.06 (p

 Conclusion

Duloxetine has better efficacy in treating painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy both in terms of pain management and fewer side effects.

 Keywords Peripheral neuropathy Duloxetine Amitriptyline Randomized Control Trial Diabetes Mellitus Efficacy Safety Profile. Ethics Statement

Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. Approval number: 324/RC/KEMU, dated 18-05-2024.

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