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Gabapentin long side afffects/withdrawals, anyone else go through this or have any ideas?

Posted , 6 users are following.

Shay2018
Shay2018

My mam was on Lyrica for a few years and got changed from that to Gabapentin by her pain clinic last summer to help with chronic pelvic pain and Fibromyalgia. The Lyrica already somewhat helped her pain but they said this would help for the Fibro better than Lyrica (lyrica worked for her) which it didn't and had the worst affect on her. She had been on 300mg and quickly started getting extreme side affects. She had extremely bad nausea and a sick stomach and lost about 3-4 stone in 3 months, shakes, sweats/cold sweats, dizzy, hallucinations, memory loss, couldn't string a sentence together, slurred words, bad coordination, twitching, numbness of parts of her body, muscle pain, blurry vision, so basically all of the side affects to get. She went to her GP over this but she knew little about it as it was not her medication. The pain clinic she was with also failed to tell her much about it beforehand and after. So we are now left in the dark with no knowledge on how long her side affects/withdrawals could last for. She was weened off the drug about 5 months ago (not slow enough or careful enough) but yet she is STILL getting withdrawals on and off from it. She got 5 days being reasonably ok the last time. Now it had only been about 4 days and she is back with the same side affects, not sleeping, extreme night terrors and sweats plus all the other ones aswell. She has basically been getting extreme withdrawals for the last 5months on and off, the severity is worse as time goes on and the space is shortening. Does anyone know if this is normal? or has anyone else experienced this? We asked everyone we can ''professionally'' about their opinion and they even know little about it. 

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • marie89364
    marie89364 Shay2018

    Posted

    I came odd Gabapentin 5 days ago. I was on 200 mg at night. I experienced terrible side effects and the one that scared me the most was thought I was going blind I had such blurry vision.

    Withdrawal was no picnic. I was extremely ill. It was 8 week withdrawal. This past Sunday had terribley painful burning legs and feet. I also get really bad tingling. It's pretty bad. I don't know how long this will go on. Hope not much longer.

    I wish your mom lots of luck. Do hope she feels better soon.

    Marie

  • Holly1974
    Holly1974 Shay2018

    Posted

    I wasn't that bad but I know that weaning myself off that drug was a nightmare. I took gabapentin at 1800mg, and was later swapped over to pregabalin 300mg a day. The reason I came off against drs advice I add, was it seemed to be helping less with my nerve pain from ym spinal problems, but the memory loss I was getting was getting worse every month. It took me about 6 months to wean myself off, v slowly, that's all I can remember as it is a couple of years now since I took it...nasty medication. Hope she's ok soon.

  • Buckshot308
    Buckshot308 Shay2018

    Posted

    Hi Shay.

     I was put on it for nerve pain in my feet. After about 3-4 weeks my world seemed to be turned upside down. I thought my doctor was doing the best thing for me but after doing the research on the drug I was horrified. I took myself off of it. I really am feeling better and my thought processes are coming back to normal. It's been about a month. I would tell her to just hang in there. It should get better.

     Best of luck to both of you

  • broadbandbill
    broadbandbill Shay2018

    Posted

    I came off 600 mg too fast.  I was 22 days off and getting worse withdrawals.  Went back on at 200 after three weeks feel a lot better.  I will stabilise and come off 10% per fortnight or so using water titration.  Look it up on You Tube.  It is easy and works .  With reinstatement you can start at the lowest dose you can 
    • marie89364
      marie89364 broadbandbill

      Posted

      I detoxed of Gabapentin 9 weeks ago. Still feeling side effects. Have horrible pain in legs and feet

      Tingling too. When does it end ? Will look up water titration. Thanks for sharing.

  • VeeEssSee
    VeeEssSee Shay2018

    Posted

    My husband was on a high dose of Gabapentin for back pain. His doctor didn't read his MRI results properly and prescribed it but it never worked and as it now turns out, because of the nature of the problem with his back, it was never destined to.

    Whilst on it his cognitive function was impaired. He would form sentences in his head but when he went to speak the words would come out in the wrong order and things like that. He felt like his his legs weren't really his and trip easily but it also made him depressed and he wound up having suicidal thoughts.

    He's tapered off around September last year but the depression and suicidal thoughts never went away and although he's been on Citalopram for months now nothing has really changed.

    It's an awful drug and I really think that doctor's shouldn't be prescribing it off-label because I hear so many bad things about it.

    I wish your mum all the best, I truly hope she's able to get free of the effects of it soon.

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