Background: Cisplatin is an effective antineoplastic drug used extensively in the treatment of malignancies. It induces painful peripheral neuropathy at high doses.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of carbamazepine (CBZ) on cisplatin-induced peripheral neuropathic pain by using the tail-flick test.

Methods: The study was performed using male Wistar rats weighing 180-200 g. Neuropathic pain was induced by intraperitoneal (IP) administration of cisplatin (5 mg/kg). The effect of oral (PO) CBZ administration (5, 10, and 15 mg/kg) on cisplatin-induced pain was assessed using the tail-flick test.

Results: Our results showed that cisplatin (5 mg/kg, IP) induced egregious pain (P < 0.01) on day 15. Acute administration of CBZ (5, 10, and 15 mg/kg, PO) caused significant (P < 0.05) increase in tail-flick time latency in a dose-dependent manner, in comparison with that observed in the control group. Furthermore, chronic administration of CBZ (5, 10, and 15 mg/kg, PO) increased (P < 0.05) the pain threshold on days 5 and 10. The analgesic effect of morphine (5 mg/kg, IP) was greater than that after acute CBZ administration (5, 10, and 15 mg/kg, PO).

Conclusions: Our results showed that both acute and chronic CBZ administration attenuated cisplatin-induced pain. We suggest that CBZ can be used clinically for alleviating cisplatin-induced neuropathic pain in cancer patients, without any limitations such as tolerance to analgesic effect.