Has anybody used Gabapentin before?

[rBoulet]

I had an appointment with my psychiatrist yesterday, we had a nice little chat about my lithium which made her not want to put me on more than 600mg per day. Instead of uping the dose she decided to try me on Gabapentin while still taking my lithium to see if they will work together. I've never heard of this medication before and when I look things up on the internet I'm not finding sites that say it can be used for bipolar. Does anybody know if it actually works well? Had anybody else even been on it?

I was also wondering what happens after I run our of medication to try? My psychiatrist said there's only two left, Seroquel and one that started with a "T". What happens if neither of those work?

[opus88]

hi rB. I am on both neurontin and lamictal...however not as a combo for BP. the lamictal is for my BP but the neurontin is for pain............
the neutontin for pain I have been taking for many years and it had no effect on my BP...the lamictal was added about 3 yrs ago when the use of antidepressants weren't working.
I too have never heard of neurontin being used as an medication for BP.
But than again I'm not a psycho-pharmacologist either.
♥Opus

[adel_ezz]

the one which starts with T is Topamax probably an AP but Tegretol is an AC . could be tegretol still because the canadians follow the British who prescribe it you are still young so no fear of interactivity of tegretol

about gabapentin many say it's good . problem is that pdocs don't write it usually neurologists only. But i know well it's very good for anxiety too

[lindahand]

I used gabapentin for pain and it worked quite well for that. My one friend says it is the first drug that has ever helped her bipolar. Its success rate with bipolar isn't that high, and it is almost always used with another drug. That being said for me it was side effect free so it may be worth a shot. The site crazymeds the good the bad and the funny of neurological medications (google crazy meds) has a sheet that lists gabapentin as an add on for bipolar. It lists almost all, if not all, neurological medications. It is a private site so check your facts but I have found it accurate and honest about what it reports without the drug company biase tied in.

[rBoulet]

As always, a quick and informative response! Thanks a lot! You're always full of useful information and kind words.I'll give it a shot and see if it helps, hopefully it does because I have bad experience with antipsychotics.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes well I tried Neurontin which is the other name for it in combination with Lamictal (Neurontin is generally used as an adjunct medication regardless of what medication its used with) and I found that it made me too nervous and that can happen but each person responds differently to each medication. Seroquel is only one of a variety of antipsychotics used as mood stabilizers and Tegretol (or Trileptal which is an updated variant of it that doesn't require blood tests and is safer) is only one more option. There still are other mood stabilizers. Its just that some psychiatrists don't have them in their working regimen. A mood disorders specialist would. Anyway see what happens as regards the Neurontin and decide from there but give it some time to work.