Can Gabapentin make neuropathy pain worse?

I gradually developed neuropathic pain in my feet over a decade or so from late 40s. I had been taking gabapentin for pain for much longer than this, sticklers Syndrome, 4 hip replacements, left knee, many steroids in spine. Experienced awful withdrawal symptoms when I accidentally stopped the gabapentin when struck down with covid. I couldn't get to my main medications in another room and no gabapentin next to me, but the awful swelling and numbness in feet stopped. A lot of what I thought was covid may have been gabapentin withdrawal, and hot flushes are awful now, but my feet feel as if they belong on my body once more. I don't feel as if I am getting up and walking on broken glass, but nerve pain in my hands and leg are back.

I take 1800mg of gralise a day. I also take AMITRIPTYLINE. It knocks me out about 3 hours later. When increasing the gabapentin it took me a few weeks to get used to it. I was changed to gralise last year. I am going to ask for 300mg more. The bouts of serious pains have increased.

Went in for back pain. Took gabapentin 4 days now can't walk

@jaydfac25
Muscle weakness is a definite side effect of gabapentin.
When I was taking gabapentin‘s cousin Lyrica, I couldn’t move my arm and it also happened relatively quickly after beginning the medication.
What dose are you taking?
Are you having any muscle pain?
Take care,
Jake

Not sure, but I took it in early October lost feeling in both hands. Stopping
Took it in early November loss mobility I'm right leg. In rehab now n learning how to walk as when I wad a toddler. I'm 42. Gabapentin n I are not friends

I have CREST syndrome and Raynaud’s disease is killing me. Winter is the worst. My hands get so cold but my fingers hurt too much to go into gloves.
If you don’t know Raynaud’s is the spasming of the peripheral nerves of the extremities. This in turn cuts off or lowers the blood supply to those areas. I have been so cold that half my tongue turned blue. Because of Raynaud's I have had 2 digital ischemias and two partial finger amputations. And I am currently dealing with 2 finger ulcers. The nerve pain is so bad it radiates to my upper arm. The pain in my hands is like pins and needles all over my finger tips and down the fingers. And it will hit my wrists sometimes. All this to say I can't hold a pen I can't drive all i can do is sit and rock with this pain. They started me on 100mg 3x a day that wasn't working i still had pain. They moved to 300mg 3x a day that stopped working and moved it to 400mg 3x a day. Here I would take my medicine and for the next 15-20 mins my pain would be worse than it was before taking the gabapentin. Their solution is to increase the mg. My solution would be to find out what is really going on with the pain. Is it nerve pain? My hand doctor's office thought it was strange. I think it is strange too. To have nerve pain worse after taking a nerve pain reliever.

I feel your pain. I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. I have neuropathy pain from a compressed nerve in my spine. After double fusion surgery this summer we are hoping it will get better. I was on Gabapentin for six months. It didn't seem to be relieving my nerve pain so I asked to be switched to Lyrica (Pregabalin). IT took about a month to start feeling better. Then I went to a physiatrist who thought I was experiencing inflammation. He put me on Celebrex and that has made a huge difference in my pain levels. One 200mg a day. I hope you find the naswer to your problems.

Gapspentin is awful. I lost my balance and it did nothing. Feel much better without its side affects.

Hello @grannytx1, Welcome to Connect. I think a lot of folks feel like you do about gabapentin. It sounds like you might also have neuropathy. Do you mind sharing more about your symptoms and any treatments that you have found helpful?

I have Charcot Marie Tooth disease, which is a peripheral neuropathy, and I cannot tolerate gabapentin well. It makes me groggy and off-balance, most of the antidepressants and epileptic medications people have mention also sedate AND cause restless leg syndrome. My main problem is nighttime pain which leads to insomnia. I take 1mg of clonazepam at bedtime, but it does work for the whole night. I used to taken Norco also a couple hours before bed and the combination worked quite well for me. Then everything changed and I moved to a new state and no one will prescribe an opioid drug while I’m on clonazepam. Does anyone have experience with be refused drugs that worked well together—I took the Norco/ clonazepam combo for 12 years.