Gabapentin - Is anyone taking this?

Hi @Omnipod, I initially took gabapentin for neuropathy but discontinued because I didn't like the side effects. I had vivid dreams and felt really sleepy most of the time. so far what is most effective for dealing with it is regular exercise everyday. And I take vitamin b12 supplements too.

I've been on Gabapentin 300mg 3x per day for three months now. Not sure if I have any side effects but the benefits outweigh the downside. That's what matters with most drug therapy.

I take 7 x 800mg of gabapentin every day for neuropathy. I don't have any side effects, but the doctor had me build up slowly.

My Dr put me on Gabapentin a while back. Taking only one or two of the prescribed three tablets a day left me feeling completely spaced out. If I needed to function properly for something important, I couldn't take the tablets that day. I ended up stopping them.

Omnipod said:

I been prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps for my neuropathy.
I picked up my prescription but after reading the leaflet, Im too scared to take them.
Will they make me feel all spaced out? or give me tremors or hallucenate?
Any advice would be helpful - thanks.

If I did take one.... and i felt spaced out.... how long would that last? I hate feeling 'not normal'!

Thanks and happy Christmas to everyone. Hope you all had a lovelly day and managed to stay in control.

Click to expand...

I can tell you that whilst my elderly mother was on this drug she was having the wildest of dreams and hallucinations. She was totally convinced that they were real and was accusing me of all sorts of things - like having her bungalow knocked down! The hospital kept telling me that it was due to her having had a minor stroke and being diagnosed with vascular dementia. I can't explain why, but I never beleived this and I fought with the medics to get her taken off the drug. The visions stopped soon after she stopped taking the drug.

I tried them and didn't get on at all well returning them to the chemists the next day.
I find exercise and omega 3 and EPO to work. I still get flare ups especially after any alcohol and the cold weather doesn't seem to help . I would say the endorphins after a good workout do help though.
Good BG control will also help over time either that or I have just got used to the pain.

Hi,
I took Gabapentin for my neuropathy and didn't get any major side effects, but didn't get any relief from the pain either.
My doc prescribed a topical cream called Capsasin. It comes from chillis and causes a constant feeling warmth/tingling to the nerves. Over a few days this feeling gets ignored by the brain/nerves, along with the neuropathic sensations too. It worked well for me and is not a "drug" in the normal sense of the word, so there is no worry of it conflicting with other drugs that you may take.

mrburden said:

Hi,
I took Gabapentin for my neuropathy and didn't get any major side effects, but didn't get any relief from the pain either.
My doc prescribed a topical cream called Capsasin. It comes from chillis and causes a constant feeling warmth/tingling to the nerves. Over a few days this feeling gets ignored by the brain/nerves, along with the neuropathic sensations too. It worked well for me and is not a "drug" in the normal sense of the word, so there is no worry of it conflicting with other drugs that you may take.

Click to expand...

Sounds interesting!

Hi everyone - I was prescribed Gabapentin 3 days ago too and am very scared by the tons and tons of reports on message boards that it has crazy withdrawals and lots of people saying how much it increased anxiety etc. I have been feeling very whoozy and sleepy and I don't think it's worth taking. I don't know how safe it is. It has helped with the nerve pain - i am still in other types of pain. Thank you for showing me alternatives that I could try

Bare in mind some of the side effects will be for if you go cold turkey after being on it long term, including anxiety and in extreme cases tremors and hallucinations.

If in doubt you could always try one tablet on a day off to see how you react to it rather than completely dismissing it.

Hi smurph37! I am taking gabapentin now for 3 weeks. Before i was taking dihydrocodeine,but my GP was concerned of the addiction that it can cause,so she wanted me to take gabapentin gradually next to the other. First few days i felt like i am drunk and was so sleepy. Then i started taking them like 1 pill at 8am,another 1 at 3pm and 7pm. 2 more before i go to bed,to relief the nerve pain and get sleepy. This way the pain is mostly eased and no side effect to me at all. I hope it helped you a bit. Get better,cheers!

I’m on Gabapentin for Neuropathy

And yes I have weird dreams really weird

Persisting with them for now

Pain unbearable I’ll take anything if I think it’ll help

Cumberland said:

I’m on Gabapentin for Neuropathy

And yes I have weird dreams really weird

Persisting with them for now

Pain unbearable I’ll take anything if I think it’ll help

Click to expand...

I take Gabapentin and have found some relief from pain. Personally I would follow your Doctor's advice which should suggest a gradual increase in dosage, this should help your body get used to what is essentially a new chemical! No disrespect to anyone who has suffered dreams and hallucinations, but you have to remember that you may not, and that perhaps other members may be taking meds that cause a different reaction alongside the Gabapentin. Remember that Gabapentin is taken by thousands of epileptics as well as those suffering from neuropathy. I'm glad I stuck with it as the relief I experienced was pretty good and improved my quality of life. Remember you can always come off it if it doesn't work for you. Only one way to find out, I wish you the very best

I am taking it alongside slow release morphine and ad-hoc oramorph and IV paracetamol for pain caused by a sepsis episode.

It has definitely relieved some of the nerve pain caused by pressure from fluids around neck,shoulders,wrists and lower back but is a bit 'trippy'.......will certainly continue to take whilst still in hospital but will cross the bridge of side effects and daily life when I get that far.

Right now the benefits(allows some sleep) outweigh the downside

Personally, I find Gabapentin evil. But, I take it anyway. I was prescribed 600 mg tablets but I only take half (300 mg) at a time.

I have had Type 1 diabetes for 44 years now, since I was a child. It is not unusual for me to have a tonic-clonic seizure from low blood sugar but fortunately, I have that under control. Unfortunately, it seems that my body now uses tonic-clonic seizures as a response to other things, such as Gabapentin.

I have the vivid dreams, like others have mentioned but I also have these seizures, sometimes back-to-back with multiples in the same day (in the same hour). I have bruised myself in more places than I can count from the damage that these seizures are causing. I have talked to doctors about it but they don't believe me.

I am fortunate that my diabetic neuropathy is not worse than it is but during a seizure, I fell (hard) against a wall and damaged my spine. As a result, I have a disc problem which causes extreme leg pain and that is why the pain specialists prescribed Gabapentin.

They also prescribed something else, which works better, but it is only enough to cover the pain for half of the month and so the other half is covered by Gabapentin. The reason that I believe it is the Gabapentin causing the seizures is that I do not have any during those first two weeks and I am fighting off seizures for the last two weeks, every month.

I would go without any medication but now, even though the doctor has prescribed something else for seizures, it is the wrong medicine but my body has become accustomed to it and when I remove that medication, I have seizures. Also, without any pain medication, I do not sleep and when I do not sleep, I have seizures.

Life is a balance. I am a test tube. From what my husband and I have tested, I could probably live life without seizures if the first medication were increased, the Gabapentin was removed entirely, and the other medication was steadily decreased until removal. But, doctors here don't believe that anyone knows anything except them. And, if I explained this to the nurse practitioner she would simply remove the Gabapentin which, at this point, subjects me to two weeks of seizures from the lack of sleep from the pain.

Personally, I would recommend that if you do not have to take Gabapentin, don't. But, it does work for my leg pain so yes, I take it and then try to ensure that there are safe places to fall when I have those nasty seizures as side effects.

I have tonic clonic epilepsy (used to be termed grand mal) and type 1. Very thankfully my epilepsy is well controlled by carbemazepine (which also happens to be a treatment for trigeminal neuralgia!)

I think, if I ever get to the stage of needing gabapentin for neuropathy, I will try the capsacin cream and any other alternative meds (but can't take oil of evening primrose - it's contra'd for epilepsy) before I'd agree to gabapentin (assuming they'd presribe it). I do know they want me off the carbemazepine and I am refusing point blank to think about it because it works well for me. It's just old fashioned, and doesn't play well with other meds. I don't care. It works and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tori71 said:

I take Gabapentin and have found some relief from pain. Personally I would follow your Doctor's advice which should suggest a gradual increase in dosage, this should help your body get used to what is essentially a new chemical! No disrespect to anyone who has suffered dreams and hallucinations, but you have to remember that you may not, and that perhaps other members may be taking meds that cause a different reaction alongside the Gabapentin. Remember that Gabapentin is taken by thousands of epileptics as well as those suffering from neuropathy. I'm glad I stuck with it as the relief I experienced was pretty good and improved my quality of life. Remember you can always come off it if it doesn't work for you. Only one way to find out, I wish you the very best

Click to expand...

@Tori71

Hello

Yes I’m on 6 Gabapentin daily now which was built up slowly

On Tuesday I was having a little walk and pain started so much that was stumbled fell over and sprained my ankle

Neuropathy is absolutely horrendous (for me it is)

Tried a concoction of prescribed drugs which have thus far failed to relieve me


I’d like to wish you well too