Gabapentin side effects?

@wsh66 Stephen, could you identify who you are replying to by doing what I did by my putting your ID at the start of the post (ex, @wsh66. Thanks

Your statement about addiction is true Stephen. I was trained as a Hospice worker about 15 years ago, and the details of medication metabolism (if that's the right phrase) was one of the most memorable things I learned. That info should be taught in schools so everyone had some idea of whether they were at risk of addiction.

No, I have been taking it for fourteen years. I have neuropathy from a non malignant tumor that the neurosurgeon said had been wrapped around my spinal cord for at least twenty years. It had done a lot of damage...left leg was completely numb and right leg was starting to get that way. Without the Gabapentin I would have a lot of 'jerking' from the nerve damage due not only from the tumor being there so long, but also the nerve and muscle damage from the two surgeries trying to access all of the tumor and having to remove three vertebrae in the process, (rods and screws in their place) I don't know what it would be like to NOT HAVE THE Gabapentin so I just continue to take the 600 mg morning and night along with low dose of Tramadol. That is how I am living my live along with the three Lidocaine patches along my spine. I don't like it....but I do what I have to do to exist with the least pain and jerking I can get. I feel blest that I am still able to see and enjoy my children, grand children and precious great grand children !

I have had Fibromyalgia for17 years. I was prescribed Gabapentin, and Neurontin. Within days I couldn't talk or think clearly. After I injured my back the pain had been sooooooo bad that I didn't feel the Fibro pain. After discussing this with my Rheumatoid Dr. we decided to take me off of Meloxicam, Neurontin and Gabapenton. Within three days I had increased clarity. I didn't forget words. I could finish sentences. Although I was elated, I didn't realize that Gabapentin was a drug mainly used for seizures, and Neurontin also affects cognition. I TOOK THOSE TWO DRUGS FOR 17 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!! I AM ANGRY THAT I LOST EFFECTIVE THINKING AND SPEAKING FOR ALL THOSE YEARS AND I BLAMED IT ON FIBROMYALGIA. ANOTHER HUGE LOSS UPOON MANY OTHER LOSSES. I DROPPED OUT OF ACTIVITIES BECAUSE I couldn't have conversations with my friends AND I WAS LONELY FOR A VERY LONG TIME. My hope is that you will read this and take heed to my words. Is Gabapentin and Neurontin helping you or hurting you.

Our doctors may be great but the medical establishment as a whole and the drug manufacturers in particular don't give a tinkers damn about anything but making money. This problem plagues our entire society. No moral principle, no law, no regulation, no sense of human dignity is allowed to impede the ability of gangster capitalists to make more and more money. What you suffered from more than your medical condition is what is referred to as "off label" uses of drugs. When you design or develop a new drug for one purpose you have to prove it is at least minimally better than existing drugs now in use or that it has some benefit for the purpose you declared. Once that requirement as been met, and the drug is assumed to be safe enough for human consumption, doctors can prescribe it for anything they choose to. They can also prescribe a drug to children that has only been tested on adults. This happens all the time because it is considered to be unethical to test drugs on children. You are right. Gabapentin is a seizure drug, not a pain med. It has not been tested for that use. There is only anecdotal evidence that it may work for pain as well. Well there is also anecdotal evidence for faith healing and the Loch Ness Monster. Anecdotal evidence is not science. If this drug was an effective pain med it's makers would do the tests to prove that, but it's not so they don't. Pain and how we experience pain is so subjective and so dependent upon our state of mind as well as being something which comes and goes from day to day that anecdotal evidence is absolutely worthless when it comes to the ethicacy of certain drugs for pain relief. Couple that fact with the present state of affairs and the pressure being put on the medical community to not prescribe narcotics for anyone for any reason, all sorts of things that those of us with years of experience in this area know are not effective are being pushed on the public with wild abandon. As my Neurosurgeon/ Pain Specialist put it, "It's a bunch of bull____". Pregabalin, successor to Gabapentin is priced by whether or not you take it. 50 mgs. per day costs the same as 1200 mgs. per day. If that doesn't raise a red flag with you I have a swamp I'm developing for luxury homes I like you to buy into. People with real medical issues, especially older people like me are not the problem that has led to the opioid crisis. We are the low hanging fruit however. We can be blamed and shamed and have our meds taken away so the politicians can look like they give a damn. If they do care, why did both houses of Congress pass and why did the President sign a law preventing the Drug Enforcement Agency investigating the drug manufacturers? Don't believe me? Google it The Washington Post among other news outlets wrote about it extensively. Wake up, fight back and sue your doctor for failure to provide care.

I tried reducing the dose from 900 mgs per day 50 mgs. at a time every 5 days. It made no difference. The drug was doing nothing. I must admit, I had no seizures while on the drug but I no seizures before the drug either

Don't we all know! Thanks for input.

Well @wsh66 - I'm in Canada, and things ARE a bit different here in terms of drug costs - but I assume you all know that.

I cannot answer the question about why Gabapentin has not been tested as a pain med. However, I can assure you that while it is no magic bullet for me (I will almost certainly go off it) - even at 200 mg/day is DOES allow me to sleep pain free through the night. I'm not sure whether there is a reduction of pain during the day; I often take OTC pain meds during my waking hours. Some days my feet are fine, and other days they are extremely painful. Still - as a starting point I am grateful that I no longer wake up in pain at 3:00 AM.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no drug that is designed specifically to treat nerve pain. Does anyone know of anything that falls into that category?

I still find Tylenol to be very useful and Amitriptyline helps with my nerve pain caused by the combination of neuropathy and needed compression, both the result of cancer treatment and surgery. That is also an off label use for Amitriptyline but it is used because it is also an antidepressant and a sleep aid and many pain patients need both.

In reply to @veteranshouseinpain