GABAPENTIN - Anyone take it?

[wildflower28_2001]

How often and what are your side effects like. What do you think about it?

I took one day and felt really weird. Wondering if it was just me or I just didn't feel good to begin with, etc.

Thanks!

[Maxx]

Wildflower...

I've taken it for several years. It really helps control the evening nerve pain(sunburn sensation). No bad side effects for me.

Like all medications start slowly - my capsules are 300 mgs each. One trick for taking half that much in the beginning is break a capsule open and pour it in a glass of water and drink only half the glass.
Perhaps do that for 3 days etc..

Maxx

[tkrik]

I've been taking it for years as well. And it works well with my nerve pain. The weird feeling will go away once you get used to it. Some things that might help are to drink plenty of water and eat a lot of protein. That helped me quite a bit in the beginning and I continue to do that. You may feel a little "drunk" at first but it evens out within a week or so.

You should be amping up. It takes a while to do that. I am only on 900 mg a day. I can't tolerate it at higher dosages than that.

Also, it can deplete your magnesium and vit. B12 so make sure you are getting plenty of those vitamins through diet and/or supplements.

Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

[Shashi]

I started out at 300 mg a day years ago, and got up to a maximum of 1,200 mg. I haven't had to take it in about a year (except for a few times.) I had no side effects that I knew of.

My ex-husband takes 3,600 mg a day! But I don't think he has any problem with it either.

What dosage are you taking? As Maxx said, you may want to start small, though I'm not sure about opening a capsule to do it (check with your pharmacist to see if that's safe.) Maybe see if your doctor can prescribe a smaller capsule dosage for awhile.

[wildflower28_2001]

I've been taking it for years as well. And it works well with my nerve pain. The weird feeling will go away once you get used to it. Some things that might help are to drink plenty of water and eat a lot of protein. That helped me quite a bit in the beginning and I continue to do that. You may feel a little "drunk" at first but it evens out within a week or so.

You should be amping up. It takes a while to do that. I am only on 900 mg a day. I can't tolerate it at higher dosages than that.

Also, it can deplete your magnesium and vit. B12 so make sure you are getting plenty of those vitamins through diet and/or supplements.

Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

Thanks for the heads up on the magnesium and B12! Yes, I did feel "drunk", but not the same "drunk" I feel sometimes because of the MS. Everyone's info is so helpful on here.

[galbert58]

not for me!!!

I know this may sound weird but about three weeks after starting gabapentin i started getting this ringing in my ear...so i tried stopping this medication and it went away...alls i can say is its not for me!!!

[mfog023]

I have been taking Gabapentin for a number of years now. Works great for the nerve pain. Currently, I take 600 mgs a day. It was the only thing that worked.

[bulldogman]

I have taken gabapentin for several years I am currently at 1200 mg 4 times a day. The only side effect I have is hairloss. It does help dull the pain.

[Rainey]

Gabapentin

I took Gabapentin for pain since 8/2010 and recently started having a racing heartbeat/dizziness/slight hair loss so after some tests my pcp allowed me to withdraw myself from it. I had just filled my script and the pharmacy gave me a detailed explanation of the Med and alot of my symptoms were listed in side effects. I have only been off for a few days but feel better. I was using it for pain but that didn't change. I also gained 25lbs in a year from it! I can deal with it. I was dx'd with MS in Oct 10.

[Dawnrnuk72]

Hi,
I take 1600-1800 a day now but it's not helping anymore. I've only been on it since June. So my neuro is switching me to Lyrica. I really hope it helps because I can't deal with the pain much longer.

Hope you're getting some relief

I take it. I started on it at 300 mg 3x/day back in September, but then I developed trigeminal neuralgia. I'm still fiddling with the dose to keep the trigeminal neuralgia controlled, but right now I'm at 900 mg 3x/day. I think I will back it down because the relief is about the same as it was at 600 mg 3x/day.

I get the zombie effect for a couple of days after I increase the dose, but then I am fine and have no symptoms.

[MarkLavelle]

I've been taking 300-600 mg/day since May '11 with no obvious side effects.

It doesn't seem to do anything for my paresthesia, but I believe it has reduced the frequency of RLS and small-muscle (hands, feet) spasticity by a little...

[Thomas Jackson]

I'VE BEEN TAKING 900MG FOR ONLY TWO MONTHS. IF I FORGET TO TAKE , MY HANDS WILL REMIND ME BY SHAKING BRISKLY. NO SIDE EFFECTS AND REALLY HELPS TREMORS EVERYWHERE FOR ME.

[LisaL77]

Took my first pill last night for the Trigeminal Neuralgia. Helped a bit, did have to follow up with Aleve for the pain. Feeling quite woozy today and did communicate to my boss about the new med. Hoping she didnt think I polished off a fifth of vodka on my way in or somethin.

[isamadjul]

about a yr

I take 900mg in the morning and early evening then 1200 at bedtime. I started on 100mg about a yr ago and have worked my way up to this dose. I was also taking Topamax 75mg a day but my new Neuro didn't like me double dipping nerve meds. Every since I went off Topamax 2 months ago I have a headache most days. IDK if its related to gaba or just a fun new MS thing (only if I'm lucky )

I would differently start out at a low dose and start it at night in case it makes you tired. Or whatever time of day is your big sleep period. No sleep driving! LOL

isamadjul
(allyson)