The electrochemical oxidation of gabapentin has been investigated for the first time by cyclic, linear sweep and differential-pulse voltammetry at different pH at gold electrode. Cyclic voltammetric studies were performed in a wide range of sweep rates and various concentrations of gabapentin. The effect of surfactants was studied. The anodic peak was characterized and process was adsorption-controlled. The oxidation peak corresponds to the amine and probable mechanism was proposed. According to the linear relation between the peak current and the gabapentin concentration, differential-pulse voltammetric method for the quantitative determination in pharmaceuticals was developed. The linear response was obtained in the range of 0.3-15 mu M with a detection limit of 0.13 mu M with good selectivity and sensitivity. The proposed method was successfully applied to gabapentin determination in pharmaceutical samples and for the detection of gabapentin in urine as a real sample. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.