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Gabapentin pills vs Gabapentin in cream, looking for feedback!

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
If anyone has tried these form of drugs compounded in a cream form? If so do they work? And also if any side effects with these drugs that are turned into creams like when taken orally?

GG

PS Posting this for a friend.
 

Xandoff

Michael
Messages
302
Location
Northern Vermont
Hey ggingues in Hampton!
I found this link to a compounding pharmacy in California that makes all types of topical creams for pain including gabapentin (neurontin). I would be very interested to hear any reports of gaba in topical form. I begrudgingly use 600 mg of gabapentin three times a day. I say begrudgingly(sp?) because it fries my short term memory, but since I went off all pain meds last December I have no choice. I am taking GcMAF so I can't take any typical pain meds (narcotic). I will asking my local Doctor GP for a low dose of suboxone but I doubt she will help me as she does not believe in ME-CFS. Suboxone does not interfere with your immune system and is okay to take with GcMAF.
Here is the link I found to B&B compounding pharmacy in California that makes Gaba in cream form. There is some good information here: http://www.bbpharmacy.com/paincompounding.html
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
Depending on what amount of gabapentin is lost through digestion, it may be possile to use a loer dose transdermally and more than likely at longer intervals therefore smoothing out it's effects and side effects. Just a quess!
 
Messages
445
Location
Georgia
Why don't you just take Valium or Klonopin? Neurontin has hideous withdrawal symptoms. I haven't heard of anybody who has successfully taken that stuff for protracted periods. It is a anti-seizure medication. Do you have seizures? Why don't the doctors explain why they keep trying to give ant-seizure meds for a neuroimmune illness. I have never had a seizure as part of my symptoms. This is completely absurd. There's a gold rush on with the pharma companies selling us this new crap (Seroquel, Neurontin, Lyrica, etc) that they know full and damn well doesn't work. All of these drugs were "lab mistakes" that were repackaged and sold to people like us. They don't work. But comapnies make billions.

The fear of valium or temazepam "addiction" is way, way over-hyped. People who get hooked on these are people who would be addicted to something else; alcohol, pain killers, nitrous oxide, pain fumes, you name it. The "addiction" to temazepam (the sleep version of valium) is: you don't sleep for a while if you stop taking it. So you taper off, like you would with any other substance. In any case, you don't develop a physical addiction to temazepam the way you do to alcohol, pain killers, opiates etc. People who say that are just wrong. Don't know anything about the science.

Our lives are like hourglasses; and each day the sand runs quickly from the top to the bottom. With CFS you are acutely aware of this passage of time. At least I am. So, to me, not sleeping, or living with pain, with the excuse that I'm avoiding "addiction" is a foolish and unacceptable trade off. "Whoopee" today I didn't sleep and I feel like jumping off a bridge because I'm so sick; but at least I'm not "addicted" !!!
 

Xandoff

Michael
Messages
302
Location
Northern Vermont
I do take klonopin and I have gone on and off gabapentin without any problems. We are all so different in our illness and our reaction to meds. They are working on a low dose version of flexeril that looks very promising for ME CFS patients. Gaba does work and I have only the short term memory side effects from it. I do however agree with you Mishmash on your over all view, life is hell managing our symptoms that are as unpredictable as the weather.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
Why don't you just take Valium or Klonopin? Neurontin has hideous withdrawal symptoms. I haven't heard of anybody who has successfully taken that stuff for protracted periods. It is a anti-seizure medication. Do you have seizures? Why don't the doctors explain why they keep trying to give ant-seizure meds for a neuroimmune illness. I have never had a seizure as part of my symptoms. This is completely absurd. There's a gold rush on with the pharma companies selling us this new crap (Seroquel, Neurontin, Lyrica, etc) that they know full and damn well doesn't work. All of these drugs were "lab mistakes" that were repackaged and sold to people like us. They don't work. But comapnies make billions.

The fear of valium or temazepam "addiction" is way, way over-hyped. People who get hooked on these are people who would be addicted to something else; alcohol, pain killers, nitrous oxide, pain fumes, you name it. The "addiction" to temazepam (the sleep version of valium) is: you don't sleep for a while if you stop taking it. So you taper off, like you would with any other substance. In any case, you don't develop a physical addiction to temazepam the way you do to alcohol, pain killers, opiates etc. People who say that are just wrong. Don't know anything about the science.

Our lives are like hourglasses; and each day the sand runs quickly from the top to the bottom. With CFS you are acutely aware of this passage of time. At least I am. So, to me, not sleeping, or living with pain, with the excuse that I'm avoiding "addiction" is a foolish and unacceptable trade off. "Whoopee" today I didn't sleep and I feel like jumping off a bridge because I'm so sick; but at least I'm not "addicted" !!!

You have to look past what the drug is indicated for and look at how the drug works. neurontin works like a calcium channel blocker and supposedly dulls down pain. We have drugs marketed here strangely eg nurofen period pain which is more expensive then normal nurofen but has the same stuff in it, its no different just that they can get some patients paying more for a med because they think its specifically for periods but it would work like any other brand of nurofen for back pain and headaches etc. Diphenhydramine is an antiallergy drug but used off label for sleep etc??Some docs have no idea what they are doing prescribing drugs off label but then there are alot of docs that prescribe drugs off label that do understand the mechanisms of the drug which is why they do it. Seroquel is a great drug for severe insomniacs as it turns down all the excitory neurotransmitters, it might be indicated to psychotic disorders but that doesnt mean its going to make one psychotic. ALso the dosages used are very different to psychotic conditions. When a drug is prescribed off label, the doc needs to explain this to patients more thoroughly and then the patient needs to go back and do their own research, but that hardly happens. All drugs are prescribed off label for cfs/me, klonopin is actually an antiseizure med and is what it is indicated for here in australia, so its in the same category as neurontin, only neurontin is indicated for pain.I agree with you that benzo's arent as bad as they are made out for 'most' people, but i wouldnt bag other meds as quite a few of us have found them helpful, i understand big pharma are trying to increase profits but if a med helps me and i undertsnad the mechanisms/risks etc then im going to use it. Seroquel has helped me out a few times when there was no sleep in site.
 
Messages
445
Location
Georgia
As a patient you should take whatever helps you. I don't care about anybody elses treatment for CFS. I respect everybody's choices.

The only reason I care about Seroquel at all is because all the doctors now believe now it is "safe and effective" for off-label use. And this is because of a massive sales and marketing program by AstraZeneca. This propaganda has effected every patient's interaction with their physician. That also applies to Pfizer heavily marketing off-label use of Neurontin.

If you see any doctor nowadays (and that includes many of our own ME/CFS specialists) the first thing he.she is going to do is fly out of that office and bring you back all the Seroquel samples you can carry. There is a "hard sell" in that little examination room to get you to take Seroquel, Neurtontin, Lyrica, Cymbalta. This is not a conspiracy theory; the government has sued the makers of these drugs for this very reason.

I have yet to hear of anybody on these forums for whom this stuff has worked over the long term. As in "I took Neurotin for years; I am still taking it; it hasn't caused problems to make me go off of it." If you are cycling on and off, then you might as well be taking Klonopin or Xanax. Or pain killers; because almost everybody can avoid addiction if they stagger their doses.

The U.S. Department of Defense bought into this scheme, and they were throwing Seroquel pills at the soldiers as fast as they could get them. Now they have retracted all prescriptions, and have removed the drug from use. For several years, every service member going to Afghanistan or Iraq was given 180 doses of Seroquel for insomnia,to take whenever he/she wanted, as a preventative.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/06/military-dod-cracks-down-on-off-label-seroquel-use-061412w/

Off-label use soars

Prescriptions for Seroquel have exploded in the past decade, especially in the U.S. armed forces, where it often is prescribed off-label as a sleep aid.
In 2003, service members were diagnosed with insomnia at a rate of 30 per 10,000; by 2009, the rate had risen to 226 per 10,000. Prescriptions for Seroquel, or quetiapine, have subsequently soared, multiplying 27-fold in the same time period.
The drug is known to cause drowsiness and chase away nightmares associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Navy Capt. Mike Colston of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs said medications become popular as providers learn about them and as they receive new approvals for use by the Food and Drug Administration — in the case of quetiapine, as an add-on therapy for antidepressants.
Yet questions have been raised over whether its off-label use for insomnia was more than a grass-roots movement by physicians. In April 2010, manufacturer Astra-Zeneca agreed to pay $520 million to the federal government to settle a civil suit alleging that it illegally marketed Seroquel for a host of off-label uses such as Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, PTSD and sleeplessness.
According to The Associated Press, in 2009, the Pentagon spent $8.6 million on the drug, while the Veterans Affairs Department spent $125.4 million.
Recent moves by the Pentagon to restrict prescriptions for atypical antipsychotic drugs were the result of a search for safe, proven therapies for troops, Colston said.
“We aim to … discourage the use of off-label medication treatments with antipsychotic medications before established evidence-based strategies have been implemented,” he said.The U.S. Department of Defense was a huge customer of Seroquel.


As for Neurontin, it is also heavily pushed by its owner Pfizer. If you MS, especially, the docs will practically force feed you Neurontin.

It turns out that Neurontin does have a signficant association with mental disturbance, withdrawal symptoms, and even recreational use. And its therapeutic uses are fabricated by the manufacturer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabapentin

Suicide
Gabapentin has been associated with an increased risk of suicidal acts or violent deaths. In 2009 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning of an increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in patients taking gabapentin, along with other anticonvulsant drugs modifying the packaging insert to reflect this. In July 2009 the manufacturer of gabapentin (Pfizer) went to trial regarding the association between gabapentin and the increased risk of suicide.
Withdrawal

Gabapentin should not be discontinued abruptly after long term use. Abrupt or over rapid withdrawal may provoke a withdrawal syndrome reminiscent to alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal. Gradual reduction over a period of weeks or months helps minimize or prevents the withdrawal syndrome.

Side effects upon discontinuation of gabapentin that have been reported in medical literature include insomnia, restlessness, agitation, anxiety, disorientation, confusion, light sensitivity, diaphoresis, headaches, palpitations, hypertension, chest pain, and flu-like symptoms. In one case, abrupt cessation of a high dose of gabapentin triggered a seizure in an individual with no history of epilepsy.
Recreational use

Although gabapentin is not a controlled substance, it does produce psychoactive effects that cause it to have potential for recreational use. Even in low doses, gabapentin causes sensations of reduced acute pain and reduced anxiety. Larger doses can cause the user to become numb and even fully insensate. Tolerance to gabapentin occurs extremely rapidly with recreational use, with the user often needing to double the dosage within a day or two of misuse. Although it is widely regarded as having little or no potential for misuse, it is often a misused drug in Canadian Northern communitiesand among inmates in California State prisons. However, Pregabalin, a subsequent Pfizer spin-off, is a controlled substance under Schedule V of the United States' Controlled Substances Act.
Off label promotion​
Off-label use of gabapentin for psychiatric off-label use also resulted in convictions.Although some small, non-controlled studies in the 1990s – mostly sponsored by gabapentin's manufacturer – suggested that gabapentin treatment for bipolar disorder may be promising other more recent and better controlled studies have found it to be no more effective (and in one study, slightly less effective) than placebo. Subsequent to the corporate acquisition of the original patent holder, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer admitted that there had been violations of FDA guidelines regarding the promotion of unproven off-label uses for gabapentin in the Franklin v. Pfizer case


In addition, the FDA black box warning states: "Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), including Neurontin, increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior in patients taking these drugs for any indication."
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Just to add another experience of Gabapentin and no problems whatsoever. Originally low dose for pain (couldn't sleep either) raised my dosage to epilepsy levels, working up and found considerable relief from pain and above all slept deeply and soundly again. The period was about 3 weeks rising only for the bathroom or light meal. Worked the dose down again gradually as indicated and all in all it was a bit of a beneficial turning point.
(dosage was 3X100 three times a day so 900mg in total). Lots of warnings(cautions) on the pack.