What is the deal with this medication?
Isn't this the same medication that was marketed to psychiatrists as an off label cure for mood disorders, particuarly bipolar disorder...when there were no studies to prove it?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...in-cover_x.htm

In addition, my doc had me take it for a few weeks to see if it helped my migraines. Guess what? No help there. All I got was a lot of weight gain!

Over the years and through the grapevine (not woods..LOL!) I have heard that some folks get some help with nerve issues with this medication. I am baffled as to why it is seems to be marketed so heavily. Maybe not enough people are getting good results or its use is limited....and they are trying to get more out of it. Bottom line, if it works for some, that's a good thing. But, to suggest it to folks w/o studies or for those who it might harm...that's another. I wave a "red flag" when I see talk of Neurontin.

The focus today is on Lyrica. Neurontin is GEQ now, and Pfizer does make a generic version ~~Greenstone. But others do now too. The doctors latched onto this, and are still holding.
They are a slow lot...slow to get going and slow to change.
Lyrica was meant to also be an antianxiety drug, I remember when it was in phase III studies. It failed FDA standards, and came out only as an antiepileptic. Recently Lyrica invested
in studies and now has an approved indication for Fibromyalgia. The neurologists are told that Lyrica is just a more potent form of gabapentin (Neurontin), and since some insurances still won't pay for Lyrica, then gabapentin remains in the treatment protocols. It gets rather complicated.

There seem to be certain types of people who cannot tolerate either drug. The fluid retention/weight gain is significant, and probably tied to some metabolic difference. Neither drug is liver metabolized, and both are excreted whole in the urine.
So kidney functions may be a deciding factor.

The bipolar attempt failed very early on when the drug first came out. It was dropped fairly quickly. Anticonvulsants do work for some bipolars, but gabapentin did not have the central actions necessary for it. It is thought that gabapentin exerts its actions on the spinal cord and blocks transmission of pain signals that way.