Has Anyone Had Experience with Neurontin for Opiate Withdrawal?

[ColleenToQuit]

I've read Neurontin works to relieve some opiate withdrawal symptoms. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so how many milligrams a day did/do you take and how long does it take for the Neurontin to start working? I'm currently taking about 70mg of hydrocodone/day and I want to stop. I hate being on opiate painkillers for so long. I have a prescription for 100mg of gabapentin to take 3x a day. Does anyone know how much to take for cold turkey opiate withdrawal? And should I let the gabapentin build up in my body before I stop taking the hydro? From what I've read gabapentin works like a neurotransmitter reuptake accelerator/inhibitor and needs to build up in the system for a few days before it works to its full potential.

[Dav125]

I was sure that was the case Cissy. If someone took that much in a first dose, they would have a very bad headache..:). I was just commenting that the norm I had seen was to gradually get up to 1800mg as a max reccommended dose..I had seen some warning about possible increased side effects if a person was on a higher dose but at the same time they said it wasn't uncommon for some to exceed the 1800mg threshold :)

[Cissy373]

Dav I didn't start out at 2400mg's per day.............the doc's increased it over time.

Cissy

[Dav125]

Thats a real low dose your on there Colleen. I was started at 300mg 2X/day or 600mg daily. Sorry on the above as I got Cissy confused with being you on the 2400mg daily. People in the pain Mgt community seem to think my dose wasn't anuwhere near the level to have any substantial benefit.. Of course I tend to disagree as I was feeling side affects I didn't like. But thats understandable. It seems for people going on that type of drug, if neurotin is disagreeable with them ,then Lyrica seems to do better. If lyrica seems to cause problems, then the neurontin seems to do better.

I really don't see how there would be any wd issues with it. At least from my perspective. If anything, I wanted to get away from it which was what I did. With no second thoughts or desires to continue using it.

[ColleenToQuit]

From reading the pharmacology and research articles of Neurontin I was wondering how it has the potential to be addictive. From what I understand it works on different neurotransmitters in the brain such as GABA and pregambolin, almost like anit-depressants do. It is also an amino acid, which not to my knowledge at least, is an addictive substance. Although many drugs that pharmacologically alter or work on neurotransmitters will produce a withdrawal syndrome if the drug is immediately ceased, they are not addictive. Withdrawal syndrome is different from classic withdrawal in that the individual taking the drug does not have a psychological dependence on the drug and will not crave it if the drug is immediately stopped. If the given drug is tapered down correctly it should not produce any withdrawal syndrome and will not have lasting effects or produce any psychological cravings. So I'm wondering if people in general are confusing the withdrawal syndrome of improperly stopping gabapentin with classic withdrawal, or if it actually is addicting to them psychologically as well.

I personally have not felt any effects from gabapentin that could potentially cause me to abuse the drug, but I am on the lowest dose available. So my question is have you experienced any effects from gabapentin that could potentially cause you to become addicted to it?

[Dav125]

600 mg 4X/day? 2400mg's? From what I read and heard from my doctor, when one starts taking that they start at a lower dose and then step it up to around 1800mg/day max..I also read that there may be wd issues with it if a person has been on a high dose for a period of time..Just sharing my thoughts on that as I was prescribed that back in July. It didn't agree with me though. I spun out bad by the end of the first week. Terrible dizzy spell and equilibrium problems..Then was switched to Lyrica which seems to be more agreeable for me...One concern some have raised about the Lyrica which I ran across over in the Pain Management Forum is that for a few of those folks, the Lyrica had a bad habit of making them gain weight..Thats not a problem for me though. I have room for a few more lbs..

I do believe the Gabapentin, or Neurontin does help with wd's. Not sure if it overides the wd's with the side effects it produces which can be mentally acknowledged, but comparing a c/t I did back in April vs a week taper at the end of July, the wd's while taking the neurontin were not as bad as the first time..Clonidine also helped which was something else my doctor gave me..Suppose to help restabilize a person's sleep pattern's..:)

[Cissy373]

I have been on neurontin as long as the hydro's I was on and I still went through the WD's.

I am still on the neurontin for nerve pain............but 32 days clean today from Hydrocodone. I am on 600 MG's of neurontin 4 times a day, but I don't take it that much I usually take one in the am then one in the evening before I go to bed.

Cissy