Effects of Gabapentin on EMG Question

Hi. I spend an hour each morning in stretching and yoga for my whole body including my feet with idiopathic poly neuropathy since diagnosed in 2012. I was also taking 3600 mg of Gabapentin daily for the last few years. My new neurologist has asked me to switch to Lyrica so I did. I never had problems with Gabapentin , I just didn't enjoy taking 12 pills daily. Now I only take 3 200 mg Lyrica dairy with no noticable change in pain level in my feet. These drugs hide about half of the pain daily depending on how much walking and gym work I do. John

Hi. I spend an hour each morning in stretching and yoga for my whole body including my feet with idiopathic poly neuropathy since diagnosed in 2012. I was also taking 3600 mg of Gabapentin daily for the last few years. My new neurologist has asked me to switch to Lyrica so I did. I never had problems with Gabapentin , I just didn't enjoy taking 12 pills daily. Now I only take 3 200 mg Lyrica dairy with no noticable change in pain level in my feet. These drugs hide about half of the pain daily depending on how much walking and gym work I do. John

As I appreciate everyone's input so far, I feel like the responses are no help to my question and as random replies pile up real answers to my question is going to get buried where others including myself won't be able to find later on.

Is it possible to keep responses related to the question?

Thanks

@mayoscout
What type of surgery have you been recommended to get?

I have read that gabapentin and Lyrica/pregabalin can affect EMG and nerve conduction study results. I think it slows things down but would not think it makes a condition disappear and seem to “cure” a nerve problem.

Do you have spine issues and spinal cord/nerve compression (have you had MRIs)? Are your neuromuscular issues tied to this or something systemic? Do all of your bloodwork results fall within normal levels?

I have had 2 cervical and 1 lumbar spine surgeries and have been diagnosed with idiopathic small fiber neuropathy with skin punch biopsy. Did you have this biopsy done and were you told you have large or small nerve fiber damage? Did you ever get a MRI of your brain?

I have taken both gabapentin and Lyrica and don’t like the side effects. I get severe nerve pain in hips/hip flexors and just recently started taking Lyrica again and it is making me dizzy, depressed, feel more nerve pain throughout my body and nerve zaps, feel like my brain is shutting down, more weak, etc. I am in my mid 50s and this really affects quality of life. I am going to stop taking the Lyrica gradually (only taking 25mg 2 times per day now so should be able to taper easily).

I think I need to get an update MRI of my cervical and lumbar spine to see if I have new compression causing my symptoms. I don’t want to rely on medication for pain if it is going to cause more side effects and long term damage. I am going to start PT soon to see if I can improve muscle strength and flexibility plus circulation since I am so weak/deconditioned. I am afraid to hurt myself and need to go slow.

I've been rec'd to have all sorts of surgeries. I already had one to repair foot drop, that never fully repaired it and was a bad surgery for me. I've been recommended to have back, surgery on both ulnar nerves, on both wrists to address the carpel tunnel that hasn't gone away since about 2016 and a couple of others that I can't think of of the top of my head. I do have cervical and spine issues but nothing severe enough from mri's that docs thought was the cause of all of the neuropathy. Blood work has all checked out fine. I started taking the gabapentin after the second or third emg to address symptoms as it was starting to get pretty painful. Cardiovascular has been ruled out. Just some sort of autonomic dysfunction happening that has been noted given other symptoms I had too like ocular issue that has happened randomly, hard muscles, severe spasms, twitching, atrophy, throat issues(closing up randomly), and the list goes on. Most of these have all been chalked up to some type of neuro cause. Symptoms of some things started at childhood, was part of the reason I was knocked out of a combat role in the military, and really progress in my early 30s. I'm bound to do small things now. Any time I increase activity I get put down for a day, two, or three. Genetic tests found a mutation in a gene associated with ALS type 4 but was ruled out given the single mutation.

There is a lot there. So I do not believe the neuropathy is just gone especially given that I still very much have they neuropathy symptoms. But this doc thinks they know all and it has frustrated the heck out of me. I should have never agreed to see this one as I wasn't supposed to see them in the first place but I decided to proceed anyway. This doc just did the one partial EMG, said no neuropathy, and that's it LOL. Not all docs are good. And it seems like med school these days may be doing a disservice to alot of these new doctors teaching them to focus on keywords that they hear and not looking at the whole picture (or in this case not looking at medical records at all). It's pretty sad for me to see a lot of these new docs trained to not think outside of the box.

@mayoscout
I highly recommend you get a new orthopedic spine specialist to look at your cervical spine. Your symptoms are similar to what I have had. I had 2 cervical spine surgeries and one lumbar surgery due to stenosis, osteophytes/bone spurs, disc herniations, spinal cord/flattening/compression (myelopathy cord injury), neurogenic claudication. I also had speaking and swallowing issue.

Have you received a copy of the Maria report and read through the details of the impressions noted by the radiologist? Look up each term so you understand what is being pointed out.