Neurontin
 

This is probably a worn-out question... Just wondering if you can share your experience with Neurontin (Gabapenten). I used to take it years ago when it first hit the market for fibromyalgia but I do not really remember if it helped or what dosage I took. My specific questions are:

1. Does this drug work well for your nerve pain?

2. What is your effective dosage?

3. Side Effects?


I am taking 300 mg at night and it has done nothing for my nerve pain. I know this is a weak dosage, so I called my neurologist today for consult and he has increased my dosage to 300 mg x 3x day after a ramp-up over two weeks time. He said that I could go up from there, if necessary - up to 3,600 mg max per day.

Mere

I was on Gabapentin for maybe four or five months. It didn't do anything noticably good or bad for me, even at the 3600 dose. I guess it made me a little sleepy/spacey for a little while at first, but after that passed, I didn't have any side effects nor any pain relief. I was taking it with Tramadol.

I'm on 1800 mg daily. That dose alone helped only some. Rather that increase the gabapentin, my neuro added amitriptyline and Mirapex. That combination keeps most of the pain at bay.

I take 300 mg with each meal. At bedtime I take the remaining 900 mg along with amitriptyline and Mirapex.

The side effects I have had since starting gabapentin are weight gain and brain fog.

Hi. I am on 2700 and worked up from the 300 like you are at. Did your doctor lay out a plan to increase? Each increase is ruff on me where I feel out of it and dizzy but the side effects lessen after a few days. I am on other similar meds like Cymbalta too so at this time I am not sure what is working and not. Right now I am in a flare up which is turning into more then a flare up so at one time I thought it was working more. Everyone is different in how they respond to meds. Hope you feel better

I was on it for 6+ years and finally was up to 4200mgs/day when I switched to Lyrica.
The only s/e for me was weight gain (220lbs to 248lbs). But I lost most of it (25lbs) on Weight Watchers.
Sadly I gained it back with Lyrica, and I've not been able to lose much this time around.

Thanks for your replies. I have a ramp up of:

week 1: 100 mg morning and afternoon, 300 mg at night

week 2: 300 mg morning and afternoon, 100 mg at night

week 3: 300 mg morning, afternoon and night

I tried Lyrica twice and both times had debilitating side effects that did not resolve with time. I was also on Mirapex but discontinued because it made my flushing and congestion even worse than they are now. I also had a tendancy to spend money to a degree that is not characteristic of me. Long ago, I took elavil for depression (of course that was when my ex doctor told me all of my problems were due to stress and depression...)

I always seem to gain weight on these antineuroleptics. I love to exercise, but have felt unable to do so for quite a while now. Maybe, I will try walking again... there is a nice park close by with walking paths.

Mere

That is only 900mg/day.
Most do not see any help until at least 1800mg/day
in 3 or 4 evenly divided doses. Your doc is being extremely conservative.
Possibly because of prior reactions & s/e.
It takes about an hour or so to start working after taking it.
It must work 24/7 in the body to be effective, not taken as a flare-up or emergency- medication.

nide, I take neurontin for nerve pain, tingling nerve pain... and 900 a day keeps it away!! I lived for years with numbness and tingling pain... eventually got so overtired of the pain part of the tingling that I asked doctor. Now been a neurontin for a few years.. and still at the 900 dosage per day... as long as it stays away I will not increase.

so take the levels doctor ordered, and then see, if it helps enough woohooo

Ne4r56nt5n
 

......

My Neurologist is very conservative. He did however say that I could escalate from 900 mg up to 3,600 (maximum dosage) over time.

The pain is terrible and is affecting me in my mid-arm. It spreads to my neck and is worsened when I sit in my truck or tilt my head back.

I have Lortab to take for myalgia and arthritis, but it does not work well on this pain.

Do the side effects become manageable after time when taking a large dosage of neurontin (>900 mg per day)? It makes me sleepy and spacey at the lower dosage.

Mere

P.S. Do you know Dr. Sumner at JHU?

You type weird!

I don't know Sumner, my Doc is Griffin (past head of the neuro dept)
& his PA, Tami W.
The drowsiness abates somewhat & I find it manageable- but at high doses it is inevitable to some degree-it lessens considerably, but I find I take naps now & then, and after dinner sometimes. It helps.
Neurontin 'Fog' is a common sx. Also there are 'moments' of forgetfulness
& I write a lot of notes & 'post-its' to myself. (but it could be age, too-I'm going to be 66)
I also took (still take) a pain med (Neurontin is for symptoms,
mainly-not pain... per se) called Tramadol (Ultram)
along with the PN med Gabapentin (Neurontin) or Lyrica.

uh, oh.... keyboard failure!

Yes, sorry about the weird post. I was tired and found that my Num Lk was activated on my laptop... Duh.

Thanks for your reply and for the advice. I hope you have a nice weekend.

Mere

P.S. I have edited my earlier post so that it reads properly...

I am now taking the 300 mg morning and noon and 100 mg at night. I am tremulous, nauseous and feel like all I can do is sleep...

Maybe part of this is due to flaring of my symptoms... I really hope the sleepiness and weird feeling passes soon...I feel terrible.

Mere

Hi I am sorry your side effects are ruff. My doctor had me start with the first dose at night to help with the side effects. So I started with 300 at night then went to 300 at night and lunch and then 300 in the morning. Then with the next increase it was 600 at night 300,300. He said it is to help lessen the side effects. So I wonder if you called your doc and asked if you could take the 100 in the morning rather then at night to start?

Hi, I was given neurontin by my rheumatologist a few months before my surgery, I can only say it helped me sleep at night and did minimal relief of pain and numbness in left arm. I was given 300 mg at night and 100 mg 2 times daily I do not take it anymore. Everyone responds different to medication, I did read a few weeks back that neurontin had been recently studied about it's effectiveness for pain relief. It reported it had no reason to be given for pain relief. If i remember where i read that report i will let you know. Good luck, Oh my doctor wants me to try lyrica, maybe you should ask your doc about it. I have not yet tried it again ,good luck.

Can you please let me know what you think of Lyrica for effective pain relief any side effects? Thank you.

Hey Bob, I'm glad the Tramadol works for you. I've been on it for about a year now and I'm not really sure why I keep taking it. It seemed to work very well at first but I must have built up a tolerance for it very quickly because it hasn't really worked as far as I can tell for a long time. Either that or my pain got much worse very quickly. Do you know if there's any other drug I could try that's comparable to it (as opposed to hydrocodone, for example)?

Here's another thought: my surgeon required that I stop taking Tramadol before I had my hip surgery. I went back to it when I was done taking hydrocodone for the surgery pain, and it seemed like it worked very well for about a week, then again, it stopped being effective. I wonder if it's possible to alternate/rotate different pain meds (while being very careful not to overlap them, of course) to avoid building up a tolerance...and if so, would a doctor go along with that?

Thanks all for the information on Neurontin. Weird thing is, as tired as it makes me feel, I awaken at night unable to fall asleep. Last night, I took half of an ambien at around 2:00 am. after staring at the ceiling for an hour. It is just weird. I am hoping that this drug will work and that the side effects are fleeting. My husband says he has noticed that I am moving about with greater ease... so who knows?

Mere

P.S. Tramadol made me feel very nervous and manic. Lortab works better for me.

Neurontin? Good and bad effects....
 

Here is the prescribing info put in your med packets in MICROPRINT?
http://www.pfizer.com/files/products/uspi_neurontin.pdf

Go to page 22 and read 'other adverse events during all clinical trials' Any of this familiar? Keep reading and grow hairs? Scary stuffs. For me, it'd caused hallucinations and the prescribing neuro kept wanting to up the dosage-I was a semi-functional zombie under THAT doc! Do recall? Falling asleep in mid-sentence in a meeting? Hearing the conversation around me? And completing my sentence about 15-20 minutes later...totally coherently..no less. It was Frustrating? understatement!
Changed docs, changed life, changed outlook! Literally, when I went to see neuro #2? I asked him, can you get me off this STUFF? PLEASE? SOON? As in yesterday? And new doc said yep. I cried all the way home from doc appt then slept for about 10 hours! Part relief, exhaustion and hope.

There is a wide menu of options out there? Just test and trial your doc's knowledge of them to go thru the trials and errors of WHAT is RIGHT for YOU!

My heart goes out to you, I hope you can find the 'right' meds that work for you! :hug::hug::hug:'s - j

In the '60's we paid big bucks to get hallucinations!!
Now we want meds that don't have them. I mentioned this to a
dental assistant yesterday when talking about the med chantix.
I want to stop smoking but the anti-smoking liason with the pharmacy
dept of my doctor's practice doesn't want to start me with the med because of the possible s/e. I have a high drug tolerance and think that I could handle it. They want to do 'the patch' routine.

dahlek, good to read info, but all meds can have this type of list! and anyone that reads it make sure you know frequent rate, infrequent and all at top of that page.

When I read these I start to get nervous... but then if I have no side effects so far and it keeps my neuropathic pain to nothing or a bit of tingling here or there... compared to what I dealt with for 7 years of tingling painfully... I am staying with it.... for now...

but I just know that when reading meds tons have side effects and some scary ones... and lots are the infrequent or rare ones....

the body is funny though too, lyrica I had bad side effects with/but neurontin nothing much for side effects! cymbalta my body would race weird...did not last long on that... wishing it would work.. they were trying me on cymbalta for pain to see if knock out the muscle relaxant and neurontin... one pill instead of two..kinds.... no go

hugss all good luck wiht your med choices, sarah

I was a teenager in the seventies and I remember how most people wanted to alter their mind... I did too. I think it was just that era - we were so curious - it was the decade of the Quaalude. What did we see in it? Now, I am scared to death of anything that 'alters' my mind...

I have tried both Cymbalta and Lyrica and they made me narcoleptic. Unacceptable. Similar to what you are writing about Dhalek but not as severe. Your experience sounds downright scary...

Bob, I quit smoking about five years ago (cold turkey) and I still miss it. I don't think about it all of the time but I miss it from time-to-time. Probably always will. But, I am glad that I quit... it can be done, but I know, it is hard as hell...

I think I am feeling better today. Not so tired. i even went out and ran some errands this morning - so maybe I am turning a corner. Hoping it will work as the neuropathic pain in my left arm hurts so much it makes me want to cry. Maybe I just have to give it more time.

Mere

I’m glad to hear you are turning a corner. I had a hard time with Gabapentin at first. But the first evening I realized I had gone through the day pain-free, I thought Gabapentin was a miracle drug. I hope you find your miracle.

Hi. I hope you are turning a corner too. When I first got dx with this condition and started meds I often did not give it enough time to work or quit with any side effect. 2 years after my dx I went back on some of the meds I had tried and gave it more of a chance and stuck through the more tolerable side effects. Obviously some side effects one can't. Some I do feel have helped to a degree. I am not saying you do any of what I stated just a personal experience that some may be able to relate to.

I have some how settled comfortably on 75mg lyrica and 300mg neurontin

lyrica morning, neurontin night.

I know they are from the same family and thought I would run it past people here to make sure the combo isnt particularly unsafe