I was told simply that Magnesium keeps Gabapentin from working. Magnesium decreases the body's ability to absorb the medicine. I am in the 30% of people who does receive partial relief from gabapentin.

its also difficult for a lot of people to space it out when they can be on gabapentin regimens where you take the pills every 4 or 5 hours.

Yes, I agree.... it does make it difficult to space anything.

But the mag usually is only one dose for most people daily.
(maybe two)

The mechanism of how magnesium and calcium inhibit absorption of gabapentin, is a solubility problem. Gabapentin is not well absorbed anyway...by itself.

Many drugs have his solubility issue with iron, calcium and magnesium. The minerals tend to attach to the drug molecule and make it too large to be absorbed. This is called "complexing" and binds both to each other making it less water soluble. Tetracyclines, Cipro (fluoroquinolones), also are complexed by calcium and magnesium, and get a warning sticker to remind the patients to avoid them when taking those antibiotics.

I don't see how applying to the skin would interfere much with gabapentin once it is absorbed and past the stomach, in the RDA dosing we use here

There is a doctor online on this link:
http://www.ncf-net.org/forum/neurontin98.htm
who makes a claim that magnesium interferes in the brain with Neurontin (gabapentin)....but I could not find corroboration of that yet.

Since magnesium is an essential mineral that we need each day in our food, it would be a serious, and I would think well documented situation, to have this interaction in the brain.

So sticking to using only the RDA of magnesium, which is what I suggest doesn't seem worrisome at this point. Really high dose magnesium that doctors give IV, that is another thing entirely.
When given this way, the doses are huge, and nothing like the doses we use here. Some migraine treatments use grams of magnesium intravenously.

Well, maybe i am an anomaly. Just thought my neuro not being surprised at all at
the bad reaction meant there was something to it.

One would think so - but gabapentin is now available generically and is not very expensive. So, there is not much incentive for the pharmaceutical companies to put money into complex studies.

If someone had exclusive license, and could sell gabapentin for $1000/month - we would know a lot more in short order.

Mechanism of action is clear. it turns you into a zombie.

@ragtop....

Either that, or the more ominous answer that the drug companies know full well how the drugs work and are just not telling.

The SSRIs were put on the market with no clear understanding of how they work.
Still there is controversy that they don't work at all.

Glaxo was sued by NY State to reveal its negative studies on Paxil and ended up doing so. (resulting in a dramatic drop in the use of Paxil in the US.

We know now that the cardiac damaging effects of Cox-2 inhibitors was known when they were launched. (I had found the prostacyclin effects), even before this drug class was allowed to be sold. So Merck KNEW about the risks.There were sales memos instructing the reps on how to handle questions from doctors. These were shown on 60minutes years ago during the Vioxx scandal. The FDA really is only given bare bones information about drugs these days.

There was a doctor on the Zyprexa clinical trials that shredded data on QT sudden deaths in that study.
more:
http://www.theicarusproject.net/nyt-...rexa-documents

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/ar.../t-104025.html

I really find it very difficult to grasp that Big Pharma doesn't know about their own drugs. And shame on the FDA for not being more careful and requesting this withheld information.

I believe that Pfizer already knows all about Lyrica and Neurontin, and is not releasing that information.

It does seem to have that effect for a significant number of people, especially when they first start on the drug. I've been on and off the drug once as an off label use to treat anxiety, now back on again for about a year due to the PN.

All things being equal, I would rather not be on this (or any) drug - but I really needed it to control severe cramping. I do want to taper back off to see if I can get by without it, but might wait until after the holidays.

As for the "zombie effect" - it took a little while to adjust, but at 1800 mg/day I really don't have any issues with sleepiness during the day. I drive long distances for work on a regular basis, so I couldn't take something that made me sleepy. However, I do sleep much better at night so that's a good thing. The biggest negative for me is its effect on "libido", but that's a quality of life trade-off that I have to accept.

Now, if you want to turn me into a zombie - give me some tricyclic anti-depressants. I won't just be a sleepy zombie, I'll be a "Living Dead" eat-your-face-off kind of zombie

So, as much as I hate being on any medication, I'd hate to completely scare anyone away from Gabapentin if they are really in need of relief. Just like any drug, it affects everyone differently. We all are guinea pigs to some extent, searching for something that brings relief. And I honestly think gabapentin has a milder side effect profile on average than most of the other pharmaceutical options that are out there.

I agree...I actually, do take gabapentin. I was just trying to have a little fun.

I personally can't handle more than 1200mg a day of the stuff. Right now I am at 300mg per day. On occasion I will go up to 600mg but i really get a slap in the face as to why i don't wanna go up that much from the somnolence. I have noticed some other great benefits of gabapentin though. it completely frees me of the migraines i used to get and my sensitivity to bright light lessens when i am on it. It also has helped with my panic attack issue as well as allowing me to get a decent night's sleep of course. I have not had a bad libido problem taking it. I also find I have to cycle off the drug at times becuase it just seems to stop working if I dont.