Gabapentin

[LivingwithFibro]

My rheumatologist prescribed gabapentin for my CFS pain. Around 100 mg. Has anyone else here taken it and if so has it helped?

 

[Mrs Sowester]

Yes, its good I have barely any pain. It took a week to settle in to it though, I was high as a kite initially! So start on a quiet week.

 

[LivingwithFibro]

Yes, its good I have barely any pain. It took a week to settle in to it though, I was high as a kite initially! So start on a quiet week.

Uh oh, I have widespread chronic pain today, it's literally killing me and I have a business dinner tonight I'm so frustrated.

 

[Mrs Sowester]

I overreact to many meds, if that isn't so in your case you might be safe.

 

[LivingwithFibro]

I overreact to many meds, if that isn't so in your case you might be safe.

I overreact to many medicines too unfortunately. Fingers crossed.

 

[Mrs Sowester]

You could end up having a really fun business dinner

 

[Wonko]

100mg is a very low daily dose of gabapentin. I'm on between 300-600mg a day, taken in one dose, at night, for neuropathic pain and, whilst it's not totally ineffective, it generally needs backing up with opiates to reduce pain to an extent where I can lie down for long enough to fall asleep. It's function, as far as I am concerned, is mainly to counter the opiates effect of ramping up neuropathic pain over time, and I need the opiates to deal with other sorts of pain.

The info sheet suggests that a normal starting dose of gabapentin is 300mg 3 times a day (from day 3), so......

https://www.drugs.com/gabapentin.html (sorry best i can do this early in the day)

As far as I know gabapentin does absolutely nothing for non neuropathic pain, but your mileage may vary.

 

[LivingwithFibro]

You could end up having a really fun business dinner

Thanks for the optimism!! Hehehe

 

[LivingwithFibro]

100mg is a very low daily dose of gabapentin. I'm on between 300-600mg a day, taken in one dose, at night, for neuropathic pain and, whilst it's not totally ineffective, it generally needs backing up with opiates to reduce pain to an extent where I can lie down for long enough to fall asleep. It's function, as far as I am concerned, is mainly to counter the opiates effect of ramping up neuropathic pain over time, and I need the opiates to deal with other sorts of pain.

The info sheet suggests that a normal starting dose of gabapentin is 300mg 3 times a day (from day 3), so......

https://www.drugs.com/gabapentin.html (sorry best i can do this early in the day)

As far as I know gabapentin does absolutely nothing for non neuropathic pain, but your mileage may vary.

Thanks for sharing! About me, I am very petite and underweight so I think it's ok for me. I weigh 37 kgs.

 

[ukxmrv]

My rheumatologist prescribed gabapentin for my CFS pain. Around 100 mg. Has anyone else here taken it and if so has it helped?

My experience was that this was very much what a Rheumatologist would prescribe for FM pain but that more recently I am finding that Pregabalin is replacing it.

Does your Rheumatologist know the difference between FM and CFS and if so, which criteria were you dx'ed with?

The reason I am asking this is that the two Rheumatologist's I've seen in the UK both thought that FM and CFS were the same and neither of them were using an internationally recognosed CFS (or ME) criteria.

I was prescribed Pregabalin more recently but it made me hyper, do too much and then I crashed badly. The Rheumatologists did not understand the concept of post-exertional symptom worsening. They didn't understand that when I crash I get viral symptoms and things like tonsillitis or sinus infections.

Hope things are better where you are.

 

[pattismith]

I overreact to many medicines too unfortunately. Fingers crossed.

I do overreact as well...I was prescribed Gabapentine once, and had a bad reaction the very first day, so I stopped it;

But we are all unique, so let's hope you will take benefits of it, good evening!

 

[Kenshin]

I'm not sure about Gabapentin, it sort of took the edge off pain but also made me a bit dizee and poisoned.
So I stopped after a few days, apparently it should be taken for more than a week to feel the full effects, can anyone expound on this?

 

[Wonko]

@Kenshin

I'm not certain, I seem to remember it caused various things to rev up as it affected the nerves and straightened things out, as a side effect. My nerves had been been noticeably, excruciatingly, fried for several months before I was given it, so it made sense to me that it could do this (help the function of my nervous system in general not just the obviously painful bits), no idea if I'm right.

This "could" be what you were feeling. It did feel weird, and I did feel "ill" for a while, but I feel ill, and sick, all the time anyway so I just ignored it.

*edit - I'm not, I stress, advising you to ignore it, only you know whats out of range for your body, and what you're prepared to tolerate vs what feels like a problem.

I can't say I've noticed it taking a week to kick in, as far as I can tell, under normal conditions, it will completely run out in about 2 days if I don't take it, by the 3rd day I need it or the neuropathic pain builds rapidly. At this point if taken it will have some effect within an hour but takes 3 or 4 hours to have full effect, on me, but me and painkillers, or most drugs, is not normal.

However, full effect is rather limited, it's only partially effective, for me, on it's own, possibly coz the dosage is fairly low. As you say, takes the edge off.

 

[PhoenixDown]

I don't normally take Gabapentin because it masks injuring myself (see http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/describe-your-me-cfs.42358/), it works well for pain although I've built up some tolerance to it. Lyrica (pregabalin) did nothing for me.

 

[Bead Dog]

I took Gabapentin for 3 years for peripheral neuropathy. The longer I took it, the less it seemed to help. The side effects were too much for me. It felt like I had a chemical lobotomy. I tapered myself off of it this summer. I did have withdrawal from the taper. I still have pain from the neuropathy, but have much clearer mind. I use CBD/thc and kratom now for pain relief.

 

[TrixieStix]

I used to take 1,200 mg of gabapentin (aka: neurontin) daily for chronic nerve pain and I stopped taking it due to side effects (it's nickname is "moron-tin" due to the cognitive problems it causes some ppl). For me the side effects while coming off of it (took me 3 months to taper off it) were much worse than the side effects I had while taking it. Some people do very well on it however.

 

[Desertstorm]

After doing some research I asked my docs to prescribe gabapentin for pain rather than the tramadol I had been on through the VA. Taking 600mg at night and 100mg during the day two to three times a day. Amazing results so far. Far better sleep, far more energy (to an extent at least, still need to not overdo it) and less malaise. Lyrica was useless but gabapentin as a generic is very cheap and the dosage can be manipulated to quite high levels.

Good find something better than the usual narcotic regime.

 

[Stretched]

After doing some research I asked my docs to prescribe gabapentin for pain rather than the tramadol I had been on through the VA. Taking 600mg at night and 100mg during the day two to three times a day. Amazing results so far. Far better sleep, far more energy (to an extent at least, still need to not overdo it) and less malaise. Lyrica was useless but gabapentin as a generic is very cheap and the dosage can be manipulated to quite high levels.

Good find something better than the usual narcotic regime.

How about side effects or emotional on gabapentin; did it work and did you feel ‘otherworldly’ or spacey on it?

 

[LaurelW]

I've been taking gabapentin for years for fibro pain. It's the only thing that works with a minimum of side effects. It made me quite dopey at first, but that lessens over time. I take 100 mg. twice during the day, 300 mg. at bedtime and another 100 mg. in the middle of the night. Since I can't take opiates (too easily develop dependency), I'm glad to have the gabapentin. And I can increase it more when I'm having a flare.

 

[Desertstorm]

Like Laurel said quite high at first but now not so bad. Hate taking narcotics and am really disappointed no docs suggested this. My bro in law is a vet and he suggested it...he is by far the best doc I know anyway.

I am taking 1200 at night and as required during the day.