Gabapentin; Used For Anxiety?

[joeylittle]

gabapentin is pretty subtle. Is that one you had tried? It seems to be taken in pretty large doses.

No, mine were in two other classes - topamirate (topamax) and lamotrigene (lamictal). The lamictal was super-heavy on me, I got zoned-out to the point of starting to lose my impulse control. Topomax just made me slow (on some other boards it's called 'Dopomax', in respect to its memory/recall affects).

I wish we lived in the future, where they could do a spinal tap, a blood draw, a urinalysis, and then pop all that into a machine that breaks it down and formulates a pill just for you. Then, you are being monitored through neuro-imaging throughout treatment to see what's working.

 

[Chava]

I wish we lived in the future, where they could do a spinal tap, a blood draw, a urinalysis, and then pop all that into a machine that breaks it down and formulates a pill just for you. Then, you are being monitored through neuro-imaging throughout treatment to see what's working.

Someday. I became further dissociated and other-worldly on Prozac. But there's really no way for us to know without trying all this stuff. Yes, frustrating. On the pain side, it's frustrating how many people are prescribe opiate-type meds, which only dull their senses (so I've pulled muscles on tramadol...gabapentin is my safer alternative). The chronic pain (especially when connected to trauma) is a big mess. I'd say opiates are the wrong option for these patients, but good for short term (like after surgery). But what is the right option? A whole messy bunch of trial-and-error because we are so individual.

 

[lessbluemonkey]

Being the most recent post about Gabapentin, I thought I'd respond. I am currently working out my laundry list, but it's coming down to PTSD and anxiety that seems to cause the depression, insomnia, and panic attacks. I was put on Gabapentin and pushed up the dosage to 1800 mg a day. I take 1200 of that at night to sleep better. It helps a bit, though I have sleep apnea. I was put on the Gabapentin mainly for my tremors. It was almost a constant tremor mostly affecting my hands and fine motor abilities. The tremor was, I will go ahead and say how it really felt to me, terrifying. I couldn't control my body and it was freaking me out and, as you would guess, making the anxiety worse. I started at 300 mg once a day at night. The very next day, the tremor was almost gone. I could still feel it on the edge, but the drug actually worked.

I'd been down the SSRI and SNRI path many times. I've tried other classifications that didn't work and caused really nasty side effects. The ssri's didn't help much with depression and caused more side effects than benefits for me. Gaba is the only thing that's done anything positive for me with the exception of psychotherapy. I haven't found anything about tremors, anxiety and gabapentin, so I thought I'd throw this in.

It calms me both due to the tremors being controlled and a general calming effect on me. As you can guess from taking a higher dose at bedtime, it does make me sleepy. There are times if I have to sit and just pay attention to a speaker (I monitor telehealth sessions as tech support for a large part of my job), I find myself having to shake myself awake. We are trying a beta blocker to help with that with some success so far. I know I'm not done with the med path, but this has helped me so far in my short venture into treating this.

 

[Changing4Best]

I'm taking it for nerve pain, but it has not helped me with anxiety. How do I know this, you might ask? I still have too much anxiety, what I call crippling anxiety. It just stops me in my tracks and won't let go of me!

 

[Spekx]

Well all, I've fired my Psychiatrist for prescribing this garbage to me, took it for a month.....it did nothing. When I told my Psychiatrist this she said I wasn't taking enough of it. This crap is garbage......and my psychiatrist is a quack for prescribing it to me......

f*ck it - I'll just accept the fact that I will be irritable and anxious for the rest of my life........its better then irritating myself by being in the presence of a "doctor" who doesn't listen to me.

 

[Chava]

I'll just accept the fact that I will be irritable and anxious for the rest of my life........its better then irritating myself by being in the presence of a "doctor" who doesn't listen to me

Really? That doesn't sound helpful. Many people take higher doses of gabapentin to find their effective dose. This probably isn't wrong. But how about find a new doctor who you feel like can also listen to you. Working with my doctor (I like her) is a process of listening to her ideas and also feeling like I'm being heard too. I know it matters to feel heard. But your "f*ck it" towards this doctor or not feeling like you are heard only hurts you.

 

[Spekx]

To be honest Chava I haven't found anything "helpful" about the whole process of seeking help. I told my former "quack" that I would not take anymore medications for off label purposes, and she told me she wouldn't give me anything else. Why should I believe that any other "doctor" (and I use that term loosely) would be different?

As for me being hurt thats just the condition called life, some people get delt a good hand, and other people like me always get the losing hand......I just need to learn to accept myself for who and what I am. An unmedicated angry bastard who's sick of dealing with people that don't listen to him. The next time I think I need psychiatric help......I'll just sit at home and slap myself in the face........I'll get the same quality irritation along with the same quality solution as this garbage med called "Gabapentin".....

Turns out an Executive from Phizer agree's with me about this medication. He called Neurontin the "Snake oil of the 20th century". Additionally Phizer is embroiled in a 1.8 BILLION dollar lawsuit in regards to this med. If I had nerve pain, I'd gladly take it......but I don't and I won't.

 

[joeylittle]

Phizer is embroiled in a 1.8 BILLION dollar lawsuit in regards to this med. If I had nerve pain, I'd gladly take it......but I don't and I won't.

Pfizer was sued by insurance companies for recovery of lost income due to unapproved marketing of neurontin for things other than being an anti-sezure adjunct med and a neuro-pain med (shingles, fibromyalgia) - those are its two FDA approved uses. Off-label uses that were most prominent were for bipolar, panic disorder, and migraines. The unapproved marketing took place in the late 90s-early 2000s, did include kickbacks to doctors, but was restricted to some smaller divisions of Pfizer.
Bloomberg news, source
Link Removed, source
The lawsuit was settled in 2014, class-action payouts happened May of 2015, and the whole thing is said and done.

The bit that matters is that it was insurance companies suing a pharmeceutical company over lost income due to improper marketing. I'm not saying Pfizer wasn't wrong, at all - but this wasn't about someone being harmed by the drug, this was about insurance companies getting pissed that people were obtaining a generic for an off-label use instead of a brand-name for an FDA-approved use.

Lots of off-label prescriptions are safe and effective.

I'm sorry that it didn't work for you, @Spekx

took it for a month.....it did nothing.

I've just gotta say, if I gave up on every drug that I took for a month only, I'd not have found some things that really worked for me. I wish it were a faster process, I wish it were more reliable, I wish they understood the brain better - but til all those things come true, finding anything - medication, holistic, whatever - that is going to help an individual's mental issues will remain as something that just sometimes takes time.

I'm not trying to make you reconsider, I'm just saying what is often true.

 

[Spekx]

I've just gotta say, if I gave up on every drug that I took for a month only, I'd not have found some things that really worked for me.

Perhaps we are different, I knew within 2 weeks that Wellbutrin was making me sick, I found out within 2 weeks that zoloft made my depression worse. I discovered that in two weeks Celexa was working for my depression. My HTCZ/Lisinopril worked immediately to lower my blood pressure. I've always noticed immediately if a medication was helping, and if anything the gabapentin was making my irritability worse. So absolutely not would I EVER take that med again for off-label use....

I would fire my medical doctor too if she had prescribed me an anti-fungal to combat my hypertension.......then one month later told me that it wasn't working because I wasn't taking enough of it..........even though I was taken my prescrition exactly like it was prescribed to me.

 

[Chava]

I would fire my medical doctor too if she had prescribed me an anti-fungal to combat my hypertension.......then one month later told me that it wasn't working because I wasn't taking enough of it..........even though I was taken my prescrition exactly like it was prescribed to me.

It kind of sounds like you assume you know more than doctors? Gabapentin prescriptions change all the time because the effective dose is usually fairly high but no, the numbers on the original prescription are low to start. Rarely would a doctor write a prescription that says something like "begin with 200-400mg a day, then increase on your own to 400-800" or a prescription that reads, "take anywhere from 300mg to 2000 mg a day". My prescription changed after one month.

That being said, I've tried a couple meds that I really had to quit within one or two weeks because of pretty terrible side effects. My doctor nudged me to continue, because I think that's her job, but I quit and didn't fire her and it's not like she fired me either. We held off or tried something different. For me it has mattered to find a doctor I felt mostly okay with and then stick with that relationship so I'm not always having to re-explain myself. We work together well but I'd say the first year was sometimes hard knowing how to advocate for myself or how much to trust her. But it felt initially good enough to push myself to make it work. And I'm grateful for that. Doctor-hopping would not work well for me...the information and history is too complicated and stressful to always rehash.

Just from an internet outsiders view, based on only what I can glean from this post, you were resistant and irritable in regards to this med and this doctor a month ago, right? Could that have played into your decision? Proves you were right all along at least.

and other people like me always get the losing hand......I just need to learn to accept myself for who and what I am

"....always get the losing hand..." Is this just a fluke do you think? If you give a shit about your life you can keep searching for a doctor you feel like you can work with but also notice if you have any personal roadblocks towards working with doctors. It's a two-way process. Some relationships work better than others. What were you wanting from the doctor to begin with? What did you want to be told or given?

If you don't care to find a different doctor, most adults won't buy this line about you just being given a losing hand. That sounds like you've placed your locus of control outside yourself, oddly, while you maybe feel in control for firing your doctor. You still seem to take on the tone that life just happens badly for you and you can't change any of it. If it's easier to accept that because you don't know how to change sometimes, I understand that. But the "always" stuff seems to find ways to prove you are right. Maybe you resist change? Maybe what you have going for you is working on some level, even if it doesn't feel good?

 

[Spekx]

It kind of sounds like you assume you know more than doctors?

It isn't about that at all. I told the doctor that I was having tremendous difficulty controlling my anger, irritability, and I was afraid that I was going to explode on some random person and end up in jail, while she spent time f*cking around with this bullshit med.......btw I was started on 600mg and yes I am aware that some people take as much as 3600mg of it.

you were resistant and irritable in regards to this med and this doctor a month ago

No, perhaps you should re-read the first post in this thread. I was concerned about WHY she was prescribing it to me.....wondering if she was thinking I was bi-polar. How can you have missed this? Are you trying to irritate me?

What were you wanting from the doctor to begin with?

uhmm, I don't know perhaps an ON-LABEL PSYCH MED!!!! Something that when I look it up specifically says it's for people with anxiety, impulse control problems, rage.....etc. You know something relevant to the conditions I've been diagnosed with.

Put yourself in my very angry shoes for a minute Chava........do you think anything in your post is particularly helpful to me or are you just trying to be "right"? You've only managed to accomplish irritating me with questions and statements I have already answered/implied previously in this very post.

 

[JL Sequel]

(Most of the time I'm inclined to agree with Spekx' pessimistic assessment, but only because I have had little progress in five years of therapy and medication, and I tend to unconsciously and automatically suspend my deep misanthropy to increasing disappointment.)

The psychiatrist I'm seeing now actually listens to me, makes me feel like I see what's happening in the world of people (generally very ungood). He realizes how difficult it can be to find a medication or combination thereof that will work, and has me "experiment" with the prescriptions. I've been prescribed 100 mg of Gabapentin to be taken 2x/day. I upped the dose to twice that amount and am now considering adding another to make it 300 mg 2x/day. So far, I feel it helped the first day or two, and similarly for the times I have increased my dosage. But it's variable. Sometimes I just feel spacier than usual, and during the times that it seems to be helping I feel more relaxed (and still spacier) and less absorbed in picking apart the nasty behaviors of people. Regardless, I'm desperate for relief from my symptoms.