gaberbentin - question on effectiveness and withdrawal

I believe by now you've seen replies to this, follow the suggestions by benzoid support groups: 10% or less over 4 weeks or longer. As the withdrawal eases and you feel better, make a small drop again. Listen to your body.

babs,

as you withdraw from this, what are you taking to help your pain?

I continue with my prescription NSAID I've been on for years, my Aspercreme with Lidocaine and just keep saying, "it's the drug NOT my pain" and "this too shall pass". Seriously. For the vast majority of us one of the main withdrawal problems is that the drug increases the "pain". Yes, it's real pain, but it's the nerves that create the pain being activated by the changes in our brain by the decrease of the meds. I usually have about 3-10 days of worse pain, then it starts to recede. Every person varies, but we are dependent on this drug, not addicted, so we logically, but incorrectly think that if we increase the drug, the pain will be better. It may or may not. Increasing may cause more problems, but in the long run, if the goal is to get off the drug, you're making it harder. Please be patient and wait it out with distractions of any kind, movies, pets, talking, being online, whatever. When my pain is worse, I find I need to move, staying still makes me notice it more. You can do this!

Mary, please understand that the withdrawals can be bad and/or dangerous only if done too fast or too quickly. Gab can safely be tapered from over weeks, months or years depending on the dosage. For some people, if they didn't do that and had bad withdrawal, if they wait long enough for the brain and body to stabilize they can still taper safely. I was at 2700 mg a bit more than two years ago for shingles pain, and then subsequent nerve damage and pain. I'm now down to 500 mg. You need to keep the doses somewhat similar such as 800, 700 and 700 mg or 300 300 300. Then drop one of those by 100 and wait for 4 weeks or longer. I found that two weeks (which many doctors suggest) was too quick, then four weeks was too quick, I found that 8 weeks works for me. We're all different, but thousands of us (or more likely) or 100's of thousands of have either successfully tapered or totally gotten off gab. You can too.

if you have to come off it, wont your pain increase as you decrease the amount if the drug you are taking?

Not necessarily. First, the vast majority of times gab is prescribed it's "off-label", meaning that it's not FDA (in the US) approved for the use the doctor is prescribing it it for. There are only three conditions it's approved for: epilepsy, a specific type of nerve pain from diabetes and shingles/PHN (which is why I'm on it). None of the other uses are approved or have been proven to help. For most of us, the taper follows a pattern as the pain initially will increase (I personally feel it's the way the darn drug convinces us to keep using it), then the pain will decrease. Often, we end up with less pain than we had when we started the taper! I wondered why as I decreased the gab, my pain also eventually decreased. This is a very common situation. I'm not a scientist and I can't explain why, but most of us have this. And because the side effects of the gab i.e. memory loss, depression, movement disorders, fatigue etc. are so miserable, we start to taper because of those. It's just a nice extra that I found my pain also decreasing.

if its causing all those side effects, was it wortb it in the end? i understand when you are in bad pain youll do anything,, but if you had to do it all over again would you?

No I would not. I had shingles, only one of the three conditions that the FDA approved gab for. Yet, the testing showing that only about 48% of the people had a DECREASE in their pain, NOT as I assumed, an elimination of their pain. As most people know, shingles is an incredibly painful condition. Mine was in my back/chest/shoulder blade area. I had almost no rash, so I didn't get antivirals and wasn't diagnosed for several weeks as the initial pain occurred while we were on a cross country trip. When the pain returned it was excruciating, that's when I sought medical treatment as I thought it could be shingles. I've worked in health care as a medical secretary for over 30 years and I trusted my doctor. When he told me the only side effect I'd get was some hair loss, I believed him. He was wrong.

I've already mentioned the side effects I've had and now the withdrawal (technically, they call it "discontinuation syndrome") I have been dealing with for over 2 years. A year ago I thought that maybe I'd take the drug again. But that was when I was on a higher dose and didn't realize what it's done to me. So if I get shingles again, I will NOT take gabapentin. I would take my NSAID, the Tylenol, the Aspercreme with Lidocaine pain cream that I use now and rest as much as I could and realize that eventually the pain does get better. Not only did have shingles, I now have the nerve damage and pain from the shingles, called PHN: Post Herpetic Neuralgia, which is doctor-speak for pain after shingles. I'm lucky, mine is improving, but I have to wonder how much the gab actually prolonged my pain. It's a complicated theory, but others who have gotten off gab have found that their pain is much less or even gone. That won't happen for everyone, but it does happen. I've lost so much of my life because of this drug. I've had severe depression, memory loss, both long and short-term, cognition problems that caused me to quit my job, and another dozen problems that I deal with every day. All from a drug they said doesn't cause side effects. JUST READ THE PAMPHLET INCLUDED WITH YOUR DRUG! It's right there.

mary,

im in alot of pain right now so its taking all my power right now to say no to this drug. the fact that you say its effective makes me think it may be worth taking it. am i mistaken?

I shouldn't answer for Mary, but I will. Define the word "effective". Can it alter your perceptions and numb you so much that you don't notice the pain so much? Can it make you such a different person that you don't care as much about things you used to in your life, so the pain becomes numb, as do you? Is being so drunk or drugged that you can't notice the pain means it helps? For some, there is a slight to moderate decrease in pain, but remember 90% of gab's uses are OFF LABEL, meaning never proven to help, but doctors want to try it anyway.

I couldn't handle the memory loss, confusion, cognitive issues, depression etc. I wasn't "me" anymore, I was an unthinking, unfeeling robot living in a black and white world. Each of us has to decide. I DO understand, every taper, particularly the earlier ones, I thought, is the drug SO bad? Maybe I should just go back to my other dose, this pain is awful. Then I reminded myself, this happens every time, but at the end of that taper, I feel better physically and mentally and that I could just wait it out, one more hour, one more day. Now I'm down from 2700 to 500 mg. Hang in there.

Please dont take this drug: It is too hard to get off and one day you will want to and will go thru extreme pain and difficulty trying to do it. I have not been successful in getting off this. I would rather my pain any time.

I am glad for your ability to hang in there and get down to 500 mg. Pls realize that the further down you go the harder it gets. I am like you, wanting off this drug; am at 200 mg. but cant go lower or the withdrawal is awful. I cannot deal with it.

I'm aware that many people have a harder time at lower doses. I seem to be a bit odd, I guess. I've been taking 8 weeks between drops but my drop from 700 to 600 was MUCH worse than this recent one of 600-500. I know that drop to 600 was during the holidays and there was other stress going on. I had a very hard time. So I decided to wait 10 weeks until my next drop. It's been 7 weeks now, and it's much easier. Well, of course I have problems (like about 2 minutes ago with pain), but it comes and goes, where as last taper the misery was almost constant.

I've given up figuring out this stupid drug, and what may do to me. But I do know the longer I take to drop, generally the easier it is for me. I'm hoping that 500-400 will be similar to this one.