Gabapentin starting dose?

Last Thursday my pcp prescribed my first trial of gabapentin. I followed the prescription dosage and took 300mg. 3 times per day. By Day 2, I was dizzy and disoriented and since the pcp had left for 2 weeks of holidays, called the pharmacist. His suggestion was that I keep taking it in the same dosage for a few more days to see whether the symptoms would go away. Instead of decreasing, they escalated coming to a point where I could barely navigate at all. I then called another pharmasist who was horrified at the dosage and told me to see a doctor within 24 hours.

I did see an on-call physician and her advice was that once I was feeling better(?)I should take one 300mg dose / day preferably at bedtime. I haven't taken any dose since Tuesday.

What is the typical starting dose of this drug?

Is there anyone out there who's had a similar experience with Neurontin/Gabbapentin?

Thanks for your reply. If you started on 300mg 3x per day, and had no problem, I wonder what the heck's going on with me? Different tolerances for different people? Interactions with other meds? Sure would be nice to know.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Sherrine, for that valuable link! The only other med that I can see it adversely interacting with is Naproxen.

I'll discuss this with the pharmacist before I resume taking it once/day.

The symptoms were so frighteningly severe after 4 days, I was sure I'd overdosed, and caused organ damage

Thanks for the re-assurance!

Thanks for the link Qi. Maybe you're one of the people who need to start at a very small dose Afterglo? It might make a big difference to the amount and severity of side effects. Some people with fibro are very drug sensitive.

I've recently started taking gabapentin. The regime the pain specialist prescribed is 300mg 3 times a day for 2 weeks, 600mg 3 times a day in week 3, 900mg 3 times a day in week 4 (which is where I'm up to), and increasing for a final time to 1,2000mg 3 times a day in week 5. I'm fortunate in that I'm not at all drug sensitive. I'm the opposite so this regime is tolerable.

I'm definitely experiencing side effects - dry mouth, feeling drugged sometimes, ataxia (balance problems), quite bad proprioception problems (flash way of saying I've become as clumsy as heck), memory loss or problem accessing memory when it comes to things I used do without thinking (e.g. making a cup of coffee, driving my car - I now have to consciously concentrate and often have to give myself instructions about how to do what I'm doing out loud), not being able to find words mid sentence, forgetting what I've walked into a room to do (lots of these things are the same s fibro fog which gabapentin is making way way worse) and heartburn.

Apart from the potential for disaster when driving I'm not too bothered about the side effects. I'm not working at the moment and my kids are adults so I'm not looking after small children. Some people call neurontin morontin and I can see why lol.

I'm going to keep taking it for a couple of months so I can reasonably assess it's effectiveness. For some folks it's a real Godsend and for others it's ineffective or the side effects are intolerable. Let us know what you decide to do re dosage etc and how you're getting on.

All the very best to you Afterglo,
Meg

the dizzy ness passed with me after a copule weeks


gabapentin is basically a pain killer for verves


OI dor, I so understand your allergies! I have the reverso ones.... salicylates (including asprin) , and seriously so many antibiotics. I have only 4 known antibiotics that I can take in the entire world. We rotate between the four just to keep my body not adjusting to become immune to it.

Oh, I've heard about Lyrica. If I believe its for fibro (coulda sworn I saw it on tv) maybe someone here takes it?

After being on Gabapentin for a month and since it don't seem to be workin.

Any ideas on anythin better than this?

Thank you so much for your replies.

Today the Pain doc rx Lyrica 75mg twice daily to replace the Gabapentin.  Hope it works for me.