1. < Chronic Pain

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.

lioness | @lioness | Mar 24, 2021
In reply to @spondi64 "My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up..." + (show)
@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>

Jump to this post

@1mepnurse You are so right that is what zI experience burning ng thigh pain I had a L3 @S4 fracture now the nerve burning pain wakes me up at night ice bags help alot about the only thing that helps Retired nurse here

REPLY
1 reply
Stephen | @wsh66 | Mar 24, 2021
In reply to @1mepnurse "If U every gave real NERVE pain, it feels like you are ' on fire'!! You..." + (show)
@1mepnurse

If U every gave real NERVE pain, it feels like you are ' on fire'!! You are correct, those, nerves do carry the pain, when u have pain. Different things, though.

Jump to this post

Have you tried amitriptyline for nerve pain? I take it at night time and it prevents the neuropathy from waking me up. Not sure if I would want to take it during the waking hours as it is a sleep aid as well as an antidepressant and drug for neuropathy.

REPLY
rashida | @rashida | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @wsh66 "Thsnk you for your kind words. Any kind of doctor can order Genesight testing and go..." + (show)
@wsh66

Thsnk you for your kind words. Any kind of doctor can order Genesight testing and go over the results with you. They must call the company, Genesight, and take about 15 minutes to become registered but it doesn't cost them anything to do so. You can also go to their website and put in your zip code and they will give you a list of doctors in your area who are already registered to order the test and inform you of the results. That was what I had to do. It's really very simple and the average person could make sense of the report even without the help of a doctor but I wouldn't recommend it. It doesn't replace the input of the doctor it just tells them if you are going to be able to metabolize a particular drug and at what rate you will metabolize it. If you can't digest the drug it can't do you any good. If you digested too quickly you may need smaller doses more frequently. If you digest it too slowly it could lead to overdoses. Say You're supposed to take it every 4 hours but it takes you 7 hours or 8 hours to metabolize it. After a couple of days of that you would have taken way too many doses. Good luck trying to find the right meds can be very frustrating and this does make it a little bit easier. The Mayo Clinic has also developed a gene testing protocol but I don't know anything about it. And I don't know what you have to do to avail yourself up their test. The company Genesight was the first on the market that I ever heard of and the one I would recommend because it worked for me.

Jump to this post

@wsh66 I guess this is not available in Canada ...?

REPLY
Stephen | @wsh66 | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @spondi64 "My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up..." + (show)
@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>

Jump to this post

Have you checked?

REPLY
1 reply
shellywmf | @shellywmf | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @spondi64 "My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up..." + (show)
@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>

Jump to this post

Gabapentin caused extreme dizziness and a couple of other things, but not pain. It did nothing for my pain. Luckily I found a true Pain Clinic which was open to try various avenues to treat pain, including opioids. That was over 20 years ago.

REPLY
1 reply
pfbacon | @pfbacon | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @spondi64 "My Dr prescribed Gabapentin 300mg caps last Friday. I took one at bedtime & woke up..." + (show)
@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>

Jump to this post

I took gabapentin for a few days before it built up enough in my system to quell the pain, but again, we're all different. Peggy

REPLY
pfbacon | @pfbacon | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @shellywmf "Gabapentin caused extreme dizziness and a couple of other things, but not pain. It did nothing..." + (show)
@shellywmf

Gabapentin caused extreme dizziness and a couple of other things, but not pain. It did nothing for my pain. Luckily I found a true Pain Clinic which was open to try various avenues to treat pain, including opioids. That was over 20 years ago.

Jump to this post

You've been taking opioids for 20 years? That's a long time. I'm afraid to take opioids as they kill brain cells - I have spectrographs of brains on different kinds of drugs. Peggy

REPLY
1 reply
rashida | @rashida | Mar 25, 2021
In reply to @wsh66 "Have you checked?" + (show)
@wsh66

Have you checked?

Jump to this post

@wsh66 I will ask my physician about it. We can’t get any tests done here in Ontario without a referral from a doctor, anyway.

REPLY
1 reply
Stephen | @wsh66 | Mar 26, 2021
In reply to @pfbacon "You've been taking opioids for 20 years? That's a long time. I'm afraid to take opioids..." + (show)
@pfbacon

You've been taking opioids for 20 years? That's a long time. I'm afraid to take opioids as they kill brain cells - I have spectrographs of brains on different kinds of drugs. Peggy

Jump to this post

Please share those photos and please say where you got them. There is a lot of false info out there about drugs.

REPLY
eternityphysics1 | @eternityphysics1 | Mar 27, 2021
In reply to @rashida "@wsh66 I will ask my physician about it. We can’t get any tests done here in..." + (show)
@rashida

@wsh66 I will ask my physician about it. We can’t get any tests done here in Ontario without a referral from a doctor, anyway.

Jump to this post

Thank you

REPLY
View MoreView Less
Please sign in or register to post a reply.