Anyone else having issues with uncontrollable eye movement with Gabapentin?

Posted , 11 users are following.

My doctor prescribed Gabapentin for my fibromyagia and osteoarthritis as I'm in pain all the time.  I thought this would be a 'safer' alternative to Lyrica.  After 12 days of 1 - 300mg of GB a night, I seemed to be doing okay with it and increased to 2 - 300mg of GB last night.  My doc told me, once my body adjusts to the GB, I can take 300mg in am and 300mg in pm, and eventually increase to 3 a day.

I woke up this morning with uncontrollable eye movements (really bad, had to close my eyes as I couldn't get them to stop) and a feeling of motion sickness (which I never get, but the eye movement probably brought that on)  Very scary.  Luckily I am off today, but unfortunately the only one home, and at one point I bent over to get something from the fridge and slowly went down to the floor.  I got so dizzy and at one point, wondered if I was starting to have a seizure, which thank God I didn't.  (on a different note, I thought it was strange that my lab that has seizures, was standing over me and wouldn't leave.  kinda like he was taking care of me, as I do with him when he has seizures)

Have you been prescribed to take 2 GB at night and/or experienced this very odd side effect?  I had read that it can cause this, but many meds can and I've never had an issue.  I started reading posts on this site regarding the difficulty in getting off this stuff, which has been very helpful as that is my next step.  

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  • Posted

    Has anyone developed buzzy, vibrations in your muscles?  After Gabapentin caused me to develop a movement disorder with a lot of jerks and twitching,  it took awhile to develop buzzing nerves throughout my body.

    I recently had a nerve study done with electrodes put on 30 muscle groups as well as wearing  an EEG cap. My muscles measure 12 - 14 HZ. They came to the conclusion that I have orthostatic tremor which I discovered goes along with Parkinson’s disease. I have two friends with that disease but I don’t have their wavy type of tremors. 

  • Posted

    I’m tired of going to neurologists who don’t seem to be aware that Gabapentin can cause a permanent movement disorder, 

    For some people, their twitching or jerking  might wear off.  In my case it won’t wear off, but I was hoping I would receive validation.

    While standing in a restaurant waiting for my husband to pay the bill, my left arm punched out uncontrollably and I accidentally hit a woman in her arm.  I apologized, and told her I have an uncontrollable movement disorder. 

    I thought I could be held liable if I accidentally knocked someone down.

    My neurologist never gave me a diagnosis after having my first brain MRI. Instead I was told that my MRI results weren’t in yet. My primary doctor referred me back to my neurologist who said, “You have the worst case of Ballism I have ever seen.” He sent me to a movement disorder specialist to verify his diagnosis. 

    His referral was dismissed as though I went there without one. That doctor even claimed in my records that she had to ask me what my movements looked like, as though I could turn them on and off.

    Ten years later, after undergoing 4 brain MRIs,  no one has ever given me an MRI review, so I’ve concluded they are hiding something, but they want to do a surveillance on it every year. 

     I recently learned that Gadolinium, a heavy metal they use for contrast, is dangerous. Thanks to Gadolinium Awareness, I have received a warning, and I won’t be subjecting myself to an annual brain MRI that was recommended. 

    I doubt that I will ever receive validation because the last neurologist expressed her doubts that  I’ve had this condition for 10 years. 

     

  • Posted

    when i was an teenager i was on it ended up in hospital so many times cause i couldnt function with the eye movement my eyes kept going up they trying to put me on it for nerve pain i denied

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