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bad experience with gabapentin (aka Neurontin) anyone?

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Posted 3/15/2012 8:59 PM (GMT 0)
I was prescribed 300 mg. Gabapentin to work up to 900 mg. over a 2-3 week period, and went off it after taking 2 - 100 mg. capsules over two days. I couldn't stand how it made me feel - thick headed, groggy, sluggish and paranoid, and it did not make me drowsy at all, like the pharmacist said to expect. Did I give it enough time?? Has anyone had similar kinds of experiences with this drug? From most of what I've read in this forum, a lot of you seem to have positive experiences with this drug, as well as Cymbalta - which was awful for me as well, and I can't help thinking there is something wrong with the way I'm able to tolerate medications.
Posted 3/15/2012 9:17 PM (GMT 0)
Angel feather - your reaction to the meds are not uncommon to us fibro patients. I do the same thing. I finally resorted to almost natural remedies. It's true sometimes the side effects will get less after a few weeks. You might want to give it some more time before giving up on it. I took the med, but it didn't really do anything for me. We all react so different to these meds as you see. When I am trying out a new med, I ask for only a few of them. I had so many reactions to meds before then I ended up with a huge bottle of meds that went down the drain. It saves on the pharmacy bill this way.
Posted 3/15/2012 9:23 PM (GMT 0)
Hi angelfeather,

I began with 100 mg. several months ago, it helped me to fall asleep. The next night I couldn't fall asleep and I took 200. The following night I couldn't fall asleep and I took 300 mg. I took that for several days and I still had trouble falling asleep. I didn't want to increase because I too didn't like how it made me feel and I didn't like the idea of having to keep increasing it.

After taking it for a week I came down with bigtime tremors in my legs and burning feet. I went off of it and it went away.

My future mother-in-law was on gabapentin a short time ago and after a few days she fell to the ground, her legs gave out. She experienced this 2 days in a row. I'm glad I was tried on gabapentin so I could suggest to my b/f that it might be the gabapentin causing her falling. Sure enough, when she was off of it the next day and now months afterwards, she hasn't fallen since.

Good luck to you.
Posted 3/15/2012 9:37 PM (GMT 0)
I'm taking 600 mg at night for nerve (sciatic) pain. Was having a few odd tremors at first as I was nodding off - but no biggie. I am sleepier than normal these days, but what's doing it (that, Norco, or Flexeril) I don't know.
Posted 3/15/2012 10:56 PM (GMT 0)
I was taking 300mg at night for a few months. It helped a lot at first. Went right to sleep and woke up feeling like I had actually slept. Lately I haven't been falling a sleep as fast and I feel like I didn't really sleep. On days I don't have to work I had trouble making my self get up and do anything. On days I did work I was so drained and tired I couldnt do anything when I got home. Decided to stop taking it and I have more energy and I'm not half out of it. I'm starting to have trouble sleeping again so I'm going to try something else. But I'll take my muscle pains, RLS, and sleepless nights over feeling drugged hand half out of it.
Posted 3/17/2012 12:21 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks very much for your comments. It helps to put things into perspective for me. Some of these medications are demonic! I have decided not to give Gabapentin another try - I'm off it now and am back to "fibro-normal" functioning.

The weather here has changed and warmed up incredibly - from -20 C. last week, and up to +20 C. forecast for this weekend, unbelievable for March - I am wide awake at night and my aches and pains have risen to a new high. Oh the joys of this disease ... :((
Posted 3/17/2012 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
I have had an awful experience with it. It caused severe G.I. issues, especially made my diarrhea worse. It only helped for a like 2 months, then it did not work. Even with the constant increase it just did nothing, but made my stomach worse.
Posted 12/4/2012 7:09 AM (GMT 0)

almost medfree said...


My future mother-in-law was on gabapentin a short time ago and after a few days she fell to the ground, her legs gave out. She experienced this 2 days in a row. I'm glad I was tried on gabapentin so I could suggest to my b/f that it might be the gabapentin causing her falling. Sure enough, when she was off of it the next day and now months afterwards, she hasn't fallen since.

Very interesting. I've been on Gabapentin the last two nights as an alternative to Pramipexole (for restless legs, not Fibromyalgia) which had given me compulsive behaviour problems. The Gabapentin seemed to send my head asleep but not my body. As a result I've ended up pacing round the house, and 'blacking out' for a few seconds whilst still walking. I've walked into doorposts, headbutted the fridge door, fell backwards over the children's toys and generally had my legs give way frequently, sometimes snapping awake in time to stop the fall. And I'm a relatively fit 48-year old man. This stuff is mental & I'm stopping it right now.
Posted 12/11/2012 10:17 PM (GMT 0)
Just thought I'd add my two cents to balance the discussion....

I've been on Gabapentin since September. 100mg 2xs daily. I felt no relief. I stopped taking it cold turkey & experiences severe dizziness for two weeks. It was debilitating.
It wasn't until the dr suggested starting it again and increasing the dose that the dizziness went away. THEN I realized not to stop the stuff too quickly.

I haven't had any scary side effects other than that. I'm now on 600mg 3xs a day. I feel no benefit from it at all.
Posted 12/11/2012 10:31 PM (GMT 0)
I was going to ask about this medication myself. I'm glad there's already a thread with responses.

I just started taking this on Friday for pain. I'm still only doing 100mg at night because I am extremely sensitive to medications. I am afraid of going up to the higher doses because taking this with my Pamelor, which I'm only taking 20mg a night, makes me really groggy in the morning. It's increasingly difficult for me to wake up and my doctor wants me to increase both of my medications. I mean I know they are supposed to help, but how is it going to help if I am a zombie at work.

I need to be able to function. I'm going to try going up to 200mg/day this weekend to see how it makes me feel. If I feel like a zombie should I tell my doctor I'm not doing it? That I can't do it?
Posted 9/26/2013 2:04 PM (GMT 0)
Hello, my fiance was started on Gabapentin..well she has an auto immune disease and they do not know what it is yet....anyway, i had a bad feeling about this drug. and asked her not to take it, but she is in so much pain, she took it...and well as soon as she started taking it her symptoms seemed to get worse...and then new sypmtoms started showing up and worsening.

..blurry vision...got worse...confusion and loss of concentration...new...loss of balance, not able to walk straight...new...she also had an extreme reaction of anger at something that happened...yes angry and upset would be normal for this situation, but she went off the charts....very badly at someone..thoughts of suicide....and then the spasms...her head and her arms would spasm...it was very scary...and still she was in pain...and she had slurred speech...chest pain..increased nausea...and dizziness...and passing out...extremely tired...

she passed out while driving, and thank god missed the telephone pole...she has since stopped taking it,,,and is extremely tired , and of course the pain is still there,,but the confusion and the blurred vision and the anger, and the body spasms are gone.

it seems there are few doctors who really care, and all these wonder drugs and doing more damage to people.
i was so scared for her...i just hope they can figure out what this is...
Posted 9/26/2013 2:07 PM (GMT 0)
and she looks alot better and can walk straight.
Posted 9/26/2013 2:10 PM (GMT 0)
oh yes, and i believe the slurred speech was caused by baclofen.
Posted 9/27/2013 11:22 AM (GMT 0)
I stared taking gabapentin a year ago in August, 300mg 3x a day for peripheral neuropathy. I immediately swelled up and gained 7lbs. I then reduced my dosage to just taking it at night and I was okay. Fast forward to the end of June when I got shingles. I was hurting so bad that my doctor suggested taking gabapentin during this time. I was already taking it at night, so I slowly worked my way up to taking it 3 times a day and haven't had any problems and it took the pain from shingles away. It is one of my 'wonder' drugs because it can make the pain go away when pain meds do nothing.
Posted 9/27/2013 10:07 PM (GMT 0)
Gabapentin has helped me a lot with my Sciatic nerve pain...before I started it, it was unbearable. I'm now on 300mg at noon and 900 in the evening. I haven't experienced any of the emotional problems others mentioned, but I know my thinking is EVEN more muddy than it used to be :( and I sure don't like that!

I'm cutting the Hydrocodone down first, and doing ok with that. Next (hopefully) will come this.

If anyone had told me before my lumbar disc rupture that I'd be on both these drugs a year and a half after surgery, I would have said no way!!

That's life....it throws roadblocks in our way, and we have to find our own best way to deal, which is different for each of us.

Debbie
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