Gabapentin side effects?

Posted by Sundance(RB) @sundance6, Apr 13, 2019

I am a regular on the Mayo Board! I don't know what I would do without it! Our doctors don't want to discuss openly the things about illnesses and side effets of drugs and other things. Anyway, my question to all of you is Gabapentin and it's side effects. I have been on it now for 6 months. My doctor raised me from 100mg. to now I am on 400mg. three times a day.
The problem is my tiredness! I happen to be in a friends office yesterday and she was taking some medicine. She said she was taking Gabapentin. I asked why and she said she had, had shingles back when and it still helped with the pain. I know the drug is percribed for many things that is why I take it for my issues.
I told her I had been taking it for about 6 months. She asked if I had been tired all the time, just out of the Blue. OF COURSE I SAID YES! She said it took her a year before she got out of the tiredness.
Let me know if any of you have experienced the same thing. Also let me know at what dosage you may be on? I know this is all confidential!
Again Thanks to The Mayo Clinic and Everyone who is kind enough to be open with their lives!
Sundance!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.

@spondi64

<p>My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up at 3:30a.m. in horrible pain. Has anyone else experenced anything like this?</p>

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Has she tried amitriptyline? Headache med. Anti depressant and neuropothy drug. Helps me.

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@artscaping

Good morning @iceblue Haven't seen a post from you for a while. Perhaps it is spring and we are all doing a spring cleaning on our medications and support systems. Gabapentin has been a reliable go-to for me since my first diagnosis of Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome several years ago. Initially, I was taking 600 mg in the morning and 300 mg at night. That dosage and time was a bit of a mess with fuzzy-wuzzy side effects. My neurologist cut the moring dose, moved it to combine with the nighttime dose and substituted Nortryptyline which I phased into a maximum of 60 mg at night.

Nortriptyline really worked well for my depression, suicidal ideation and pain all the way through the night and even into the next day. The problem was uncontrollable constipation and then diarrhea. Even if the pain was somewhat controlled, I couldn't go out because the digestive issues were cramping my style big time. My PCP and I worked out the addition of another dose of 2:1 CBD/THC cannabis for nighttime and a 1:1 CBD/THC dose for pain in the morning. We added a 300 mg Gabapentin capsule for nighttime good sleep, making my total 1200 mg. And we discussed other ways to eliminate the depression which so far has been frustrating but doable. I will be attending a special 3 day retreat this weekend to work on my mindful meditation and restorative yoga.

So.....with the help of Connect members, I am now done with the Nortriptyline taper which took about 3 months. I miss it because it worked. I haven't yet balanced out the cannabis and Rx medication as well as I think I can. I am doing some mixing of a 1:3 CBD/THC and a 3:1 CBD/THC topical for the pins and tingles.

Here is the next challenge......to taper off duloxetine (Cymbalta) which I have been using for severe anxiety for about a year My PCP and I will be talking about that taper in April. I am not as comfortable launching this one so I will gratefully accept any ideas or substitutions you have found valuable. My goal was to pass my MN driver's test and be able to travel to visit grandchildren. I did both in the last month without panicking and with help from duloxetine. I just got home from Texas and am crashing big time today. I need to be aware and alert for the retreat which begins tomorrow evening.

Have any of you said goodbye to duloxetine? What happened? To Nortriptyline? What happened? Gabapentin? What happened? What substitutions have you found?

Are any of you combining cannabis with Rx medications? What symptom would you most like help with? Pain, fatigue, digestive issues? Others?

May you all be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. I appreciate being on this Connect team. There is just nothing like it in the scope of online communities. Chris

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Geesh Chris - You have a LOT to deal with!!!

I was on Nortriptyline almost 3 decades ago, and I remember the horrible constipation šŸ™ I may not have to go that route, but if I do hopefully I will be on a low enough dosage that it won't be as much of a problem. Although I suffered from depression and anxiety for most of my life, it has been a non-issue since I met my husband (about 13 years ago). I feel incredibly blessed at this point of my life, and I'm quite desperate to protect that peaceful way of being. BTW - I don't remember having any issues taping from the Nortriptyline - although I do remember the horrific brain zaps when tapering off Effexor..

Wishing you the very best of luck with your tapering goals!

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@wsh66

Has she tried amitriptyline? Headache med. Anti depressant and neuropothy drug. Helps me.

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@wsh66 - What dosage are you on? And have you had to increase the dosage over time?

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@georgiey1

my wife of 67 years has migraine/tension headaches for over 40 years. She looks like is 60 year old'she has an auto APLS 85 but looks life a excellent a very beautiful 60 yrs old. She has been taking gabapentin for maybe 10 years. nothing helps. she been to many doctors nothing helps. she is the nicest kindness person you could ever meet. if any one has some davice to help. PLEASE

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@georgiey1 - We should all be so lucky to be loved like you love your wife <3 Hopefully you can get some information on things that may help her experience less pain.

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@iceblue

Geesh Chris - You have a LOT to deal with!!!

I was on Nortriptyline almost 3 decades ago, and I remember the horrible constipation šŸ™ I may not have to go that route, but if I do hopefully I will be on a low enough dosage that it won't be as much of a problem. Although I suffered from depression and anxiety for most of my life, it has been a non-issue since I met my husband (about 13 years ago). I feel incredibly blessed at this point of my life, and I'm quite desperate to protect that peaceful way of being. BTW - I don't remember having any issues taping from the Nortriptyline - although I do remember the horrific brain zaps when tapering off Effexor..

Wishing you the very best of luck with your tapering goals!

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Thanks @iceblue. I appreciate your validation of everyone's "Oh No". And your BTW......my other taping issue was pain every time I jumped down a level. We're not going there tonight. Be safe and protected.

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@iceblue

@wsh66 - What dosage are you on? And have you had to increase the dosage over time?

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25 mgs. At bedtime. I started at 12.5, then went to 25. I stopped taking it to make sure it was helping with a very specific pain caused by a combination of neuropathy and heavy duty compression of my left leg and foot. It was very helpful so i decided to try 50mgs. Too much. I went down to 37.5 but still too much. Larger doses made me too sleepy even though I took it at night. This was pain that Lyrica did nothing for. I tried dropping each of my meds, one at a time to make sure I really needed them. Amitriptyline is a winner for me. Doesn't hurt that is an antidepressant either. I also like it because it's a sleep aid and my compression can be quite uncomfortable at night and it helps me sleep through. I have lymphedema on my left side because I had 21 lymph nodes removed during cancer surgery.

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@iceblue

Geesh Chris - You have a LOT to deal with!!!

I was on Nortriptyline almost 3 decades ago, and I remember the horrible constipation šŸ™ I may not have to go that route, but if I do hopefully I will be on a low enough dosage that it won't be as much of a problem. Although I suffered from depression and anxiety for most of my life, it has been a non-issue since I met my husband (about 13 years ago). I feel incredibly blessed at this point of my life, and I'm quite desperate to protect that peaceful way of being. BTW - I don't remember having any issues taping from the Nortriptyline - although I do remember the horrific brain zaps when tapering off Effexor..

Wishing you the very best of luck with your tapering goals!

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Eating things like prunes and dried apricots and really increasing your water intake can help with constipation. So can stool softeners and vegetable laxatives. Amitriptyline never affected me that way. Don't give up hope oh, there is a solution. I deal with depression too that's one of the things I liked about amitriptyline. Picking psychotropic meds can be a real crapshoot but it doesn't have to be. Check out Gene Sight Testing. That's a company name. You go to their website and put in your zip code and it will give you the names and addresses of doctors in your area who are registered to administer the test. It cost the doctor nothing to register and only takes about 15 minutes on the phone. The way they do it is to send you a swab kit and you swab the inside of your cheek and you mail it off to them. What you get is a very long involved report which analyzes which meds your body can metabolize and which meds you will metabolize poorly. It also tells you if there are specific meds that you will need larger doses because you don't metabolize them well or you need smaller doses because you metabolize them too well. Their test covers drugs for psychotropic meds pain meds and mood stabilizers like antidepressants. I found out that I was taking just the rate narcotics but I've been taking the wrong antidepressant for a number of years and switch to the one the test predicted would work and got great results. Some doctors don't want to have a gene test telling them what they should prescribe but doctors like that are way behind the times. Maybe they're so busy they can't take the 15 minutes to register but your doctor doesn't have to be the one who gets you the test. You get a copy of the report and you can show your doctor the page that tells them what drug they should try first rather than having you go from one drug to another looking for the right drug for depression. Even worse is what people with serious mental illness like schizophrenia and other psychosis go through trying to find the right Med that works for them. It takes weeks to months to get a drug started hey, weeks to months to taper off and if it doesn't work and then you start the whole process over again. This test doesn't guarantee that a certain drug will work for you but it does guarantee your body will be able to properly digest the drug which is way more than half the battle. This test is the most hopeful thing that is coming along in ages. Mayo Clinic is now offering their own version probably for a lot more money than Gene Sight is but Gene Sight is the original

Good luck

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@spondi64

<p>My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up at 3:30a.m. in horrible pain. Has anyone else experenced anything like this?</p>

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I take 600mgs of Gabapentin daily and have never had that happen...however, I do have times where I feel as though my body is going into some kinda of jerking movement after I take it and relax at night.

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@meme2eight

I take 600mgs of Gabapentin daily and have never had that happen...however, I do have times where I feel as though my body is going into some kinda of jerking movement after I take it and relax at night.

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I'm glad you have no side effects that's cause you to stop this drug, but my question is does it help with your pain? I tried it twice already and it just doesn't fly for me as I can't leave the house once I am on it.

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@donfeld

I'm glad you have no side effects that's cause you to stop this drug, but my question is does it help with your pain? I tried it twice already and it just doesn't fly for me as I can't leave the house once I am on it.

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I take it and it makes a significant difference in my pain level. It does more for me than morphine, oxycodone or MS Contin (and tons of other meds). I hate when people make statements like ā€œit does nothing for painā€. Because while it may not work for THEM in helping with their pain- it may work different for a different patient. It has helped me a lot and makes a HUGE difference in my pain level. Iā€™ve taken it for years and canā€™t see not taking it.

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