Hi everyone, I was prescribed Neurontin at bedtime for severe neuralgia resulting from several discs out in my cervical spine. She started me out on a low dose of 300mg and I was to titrate up to 900mg after two weeks, but I found I could barely handle 600mg. Initially I thought it was causing me to hallucinate or have waking dreams. Over the next couple weeks I worked on being more cognizant of what was actually happening, and found that I was flying up out of bed gasping for air. My Doc ordered an over night pulse/ox text and confirmed that I did quit breathing. I loathe to quit taking the Neurontin because this has been the first time in 3 years that I can go for almost 8 hours without being in severe pain but at the same time I am only 30years old and I dont want to have a breathing machine just because of a medication. Has anybody had any similar experiences or found an alternate solution..I would greatly appreciate any feedback
Kristy, Oregon

Please check out this post:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post827707-8.html

You could try stopping the gabapentin & see if the apnea stops as well, but this might take a while for the gabapentin/effect to get out of your system.

You could discuss with your doctor trying a different med. Others commonly used for neuropathic pain include (but not limited to) Lyrica and Topamax/topiramate. Since all of these meds affect the nervous system, they'll all have some potential to effect respiration as well, but that doesn't mean they will.

Has it been determined whether the apnea is central, obstructive or complex (mixed)? Type of apnea can bear on possible treatments; a sleep study may be in order.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea

If it's obstructive, you could take up playing the didgeridoo.

We tried a custom-made appliance, but it didn't work.

Nobody likes the idea of the machine, regardless of age, but there are worse things, it's non-invasive, it allows you to continue pain control, and most importantly, it works for most (though it takes some getting used to - being on gabapentin should help that too.)

Doc

Hey Gershonb,

I to suffer from Central Sleep Apnea. I was just wondering how your condition has progressed, do you use a cpap or autosv and have u been prescribed any meds that helped? Sry for all the questions, recently diagnosed and stresing. Was just prescribed gabapentin hence the post.
Thx

I was diagnosed with central sleep apnea and prescribed BIPAP. I find it does not help me though and I still wake up with a massive headache,dizzy and freezing cold. I also have some neurologic defects with my brain ( ACC and septo optic dysplasia as well as what they call 'aquired chiari malformation") Does anyone else have central sleep apnea and has anything else other then BIPAP been used with sucsess?