Do not take gabapentin, makes it worse

Well if Gabapentin works 50% of the time, I wasn’t in that 50% because it did nothing for the pins and needles in my feet and legs.
Gave it over a year, and nothing!

Welcome @jeffclaussen, Sorry to hear that you have the neuropathy numbness from your chemo treatments but I'm happy to hear you are not having the pain also. The numbness is bad enough by itself. I have seen zero research that gabapentin helps with numbness and I have not heard anyone with the neuropathy numbness say it helped but there may be someone out there with a positive experience. Before I was diagnosed I had been dealing with the neuropathy numbness that started in my toes and had been in my feet for more than 20 years. I decided to see if I could get a diagnosis and/or treatment. My primary care doctor gave me gabapentin which I took for a month and it did absolutely nothing so I stopped taking it. At my next appointment I discussed the gabapentin with her and that it didn't help. She went away for a few minutes and brought in others on her Mayo Clinic doctor team. After a few short minutes of talking to me about my numbness symptoms they all concurred that gabapentin does nothing for numbness. I shared my neuropathy journey in another discussion here - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/310341/.

I think you might find the following discussion helpful:
--- Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy: What helps get rid of it?: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/chemotherapy-induced-neuropathy/

Another thing that might be helpful is discussing supplements that may help with your doctor. Here's some information that explains more:
--- Dietary Supplements in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A New Hope?:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8838672/
Have you looked into any complementary or alternative treatments?

Hello @elvans40 and @ngeorge4, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @harley22 and others. I only took gabapentin for a short period of time (less than a month) and stopped taking it after a short discussion with my primary care team about gabapentin for neuropathy when I only have numbness and no pain. It doesn't help with the numbness so I stopped taking it. The different side effects can be bad for some of us while others benefit from it's use. Side effects are something each of us need to have a discussion with our doctors so that we know what to expect along with things we may be able to do to lessen any side effect.

@elvans40 do you mind sharing a little more about your neuropathy diagnosis and symptoms? Have you discussed any other possible treatments with your doctor?

@ngeorge4 I know it must be difficult for you gaining 60 pounds and have the doctor just say we can deal with it later. Are you able to have a discussion with your doctor or care team and ask for suggestions that can help you with some suggestions on what you can do to help stop the weight gain or lose what you have gained?

Gabapentin eliminated all of my pain. It truly was a life saver. It takes a few weeks before it starts working. The dosage gets increased slowly over time. It does nothing for numbness and I don’t believe it is supposed to. I still take it today, a year and a half later and it still works. You should have this discussion with your physician. I had my doubts at first but thank God I have it to take instead of opioids or NSAID’s.

So glad you did not experience any side effects. I stopped because of the foggy , zombie like feeling I experienced. I finally realized the benefits did not outweigh the side effects.

Quite a few of the meds I've tried had that effect on me, both neuropathy meds and pain meds. My wife notices my reduced cognitive function when I don't sense it, so when I notice it, it has to be pretty bad! Gabapentin had that effect on me, too. Bummer. When I started taking Lyrica, I thought I'd found my magic cure, until one day, after a couple of weeks, I became incoherent and couldn't finish a sentence. 3 days in the hospital.

For so many of us the search keeps going on and on. The fortunate ones find relief in the standard neuropathy meds. Have you been able to find one that works for you? Believe me, the list is incredibly long!

Jim

I don't believe the oncologist that told me that and I don't believe my personal physician either. It appears the whole medical field is pushing this gabanpentin like it's the new miracle drug and I have as yet found anyone who says it works for anything except maybe pain relief. When I mentioned this to the nurse at my Dr.s office she said, "We consider numbness to be pain" They don't want to be wrong and ya can't get a straight answer from any of them... at least the ones I talked to thanks for responding!