Gabapentin withdrawal
 

If I go forward with brain surgery for my aneurysm I want my body clear of gabapentin. I take 400mgs 3x a day. Has anyone here stopped taking gabapentin?

I think it helped me, but it is also causing issues. I have gained weight. My brain is foggy. There are other issues, too, but I cannot be sure the gabapentin is causing them or not.

Hey Bio, Gabapentin is a hard medicine to come off easily. I've had to do it twice over the last several years. All of the other medicine is a 3 day taper. Gabapentin is a week taper. My Pharmacist (my 1st cousin who I talk with several times a day, and who is keenly aware of the hard time I have getting off medicine.) taught me how to stop it as painless as possible. I was On Gabapentin 600mg 3x daily. She told me to start by not taking my night pill. Do that for one week. Then on the same day next week stop the daytime pill. Finally after a week of only taking the morning pill stop that one. Good luck Bio.

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I will ask her or you can look up the half life of Gabapentin. (meaning how long it stays in your body after the last pill) That way you would know the all clear date to plan your surgery.

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Hi BB,

I would never tell anyone to stay on a med they are tired of. I myself went off gabapentin for similar reasons and it was a long taper. But I am curious as to why you want to go off the gabapentin before surgery. Did any of your doctors recommend it?

The reason I ask is because gabapentin is helping keep your nervous system calm and dampens down pain impulses. Recent data out of Stanford pain clinic advocates for the use of 900mg given immediately before surgery to help avoid chronic pain. My surgeon orders it pre-op for all his patients. (He trained at Stanford).

Could you maybe decrease dose to something more tolerable for you but still keep it on board till after your recovery? Just a thought....
:hug:

The half life of gabapentin is 6 hours with a range of 5-7 hours. The analgesic effect may last longer. That's usually why they load you up good at night when the side effects won't hit you so bad and have you take less during the day. At least that's what they did for me. I have bad dizziness with it, probably made worse by having bad dizziness with POTS. Grogginess, brain fog, most of the symptoms everybody else has.

After my first ketamine infusion it knocked my pain level down so well I got completely off of it. I titered myself down over about two weeks depending on how I felt. I was on 2400 mg a day. I didn't have any trouble getting off of it. I was much less dizzy so that was a big benefit.

I was off of it a couple of months. I eventually had to go back on a small dose at night due to migraines. However, my PM docs wanted me back on it for my CRPS even though I wasn't having enough pain to justify it in my mind. So since I'm back on it, I'm just trying to take the least amount I need to control symptoms yet stay functional. As in, can drive some days.

So anyways, I didn't think it was a big deal to get off of. Just give yourself some time. But I echo LittlePaw's question about why you want to?

Denise

I have heard that it can be difficult to get off of. Most people need to taper off of it slowly. I can say that my husband was on it for severe leg cramps and had no issues when he stopped taking it suddenly, but he was only on 600 mg at night.

If you do go forward with brain surgery, please let us know how you are doing when you can. Brain surgery can be a very scary surgery to go forward with. Not only for you, but for your family and friends as well.
:hug:
Alaina

Littlepaw,


Thank you for the info on pre-surgery neurontin. I will investigate this and put it in my surgery packet. LOL, it gets bigger and bigger by the month.

The four day headaches and chronic upset stomach are doing me in. I am spending too much time on the couch with an ice pack on my head.

Also of note, neurontin interfers with brain plasticity.

https://painkills2.wordpress.com/201...rain-synapses/