E-Mail IMAGE: Phillip Popovich is a professor and chair of Ohio State's Department of Neuroscience and Executive Director of the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury at The Ohio State University College... view more Credit: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center COLUMBUS, Ohio - Research led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine found that the widely prescribed pain-relief drug gabapentin can prevent harmful structural changes in the injured spinal cords of mice, and also block cardiovascular changes and immune suppression caused by spinal cord injury. "Gabapentin is often prescribed as a treatment for pain, but if it is given early after injury - before symptoms develop - it can also limit structural changes in nerve cells. We show that these benefits remain even one month after stopping gabapentin treatment in spinal injured mice. We believe that gabapentin could be repurposed as a prophylactic therapy that can prevent autonomic dysfunction in people affected by spinal cord injuries," said Phillip Popovich, senior author and chair of Ohio State's Department of Neuroscience.