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Today, with the approval of my doctor, I'm starting to taper off gabapentin after daily use for 6 years. I've taken between 900 mg and 1600 mg (what I'm currently taking) per day for generalized anxiety and panic disorder. Over time I've been having more and more odd symptoms that are interfering with my daily life, and it isn't helping my anxiety at all anymore like it did at the start of taking it. Now I just feel foggy and out of it, my memory is much worse, I'm more anxious and have this unshakable feeling of "doom" that settles over me, I'm more irritable, I have blurry vision and burning, watery eyes, etc., and the weirdest of all: every single evening like clockwork, I start to feel really warm like I have a fever. Sometimes I have chills, but I don't have a temperature.
I've read some absolute horror stories about coming off this medicine and honestly, I'm scared. I really want to be off this, but I'm afraid the process is going to be too anxiety-triggering. Does anyone have any advice?
Replies to "Today, with the approval of my doctor, I'm starting to taper off gabapentin after daily use..."
Hi @rep333 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I moved your post here:
- Tapering Off Gabapentin
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tapering-off-gabapentin/?pg=4#comment-723955 so you can connect with others tapering.
Did your doctor talk to you about the likely side effects?
I was prescribed Gabapentin for small fiber neuropathy. It didn't work but had a host of terrible side effects. I was told that the side effects were not from the gabapentin. Then an awesome internist and a team member said they were side effects. Just like yours. The tapor seems slow and there are nasty withdrawal. But getting of this medication will be so worth it.
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@rep333
Using a compounding pharmacy is your best bet. I use the 5-10% method. (The general guideline is to not exceed a 5% to 10% reduction of the current dose every four weeks. One study found that a “tapering” method used by many physicians—to reduce a benzodiazepine dose by 25% a week—was ineffective for at least 32% to 42% (that is, they failed to get off the drug).)
Taper slowly and if start to have withdrawals increase your dose and taper more slowly and you might want to increase the time between your
your cuts.
I had no problems going off it.
Good luck,
Jake