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Any positive experiences regarding the use of gabapentin during withdrawal?


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Hi everyone,

 

A year ago I started seeing a psychiatrist in hopes of tapering off of my 1.5 mg Klonopin dosage.

 

Long story short, things went very badly and I am still at that dosage.

 

I used to have idiopathic epileptic seizures (though thankfully I haven't had one for more than a decade) so I am always worried about the possibility of a seizure due to withdrawal.

 

I see lots of awful stories on these boards about gabapentin, so I'm wondering if anyone has positive experiences in terms of avoiding seizures, reducing withdrawal symptoms such as panic attacks and being able to advance in their medication taper.

 

My doctor is offering this as an option to me when I restart my taper, so I want to make sure that I am giving it a fair look. Thanks for anything you can share.

 

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Hi

I think that question is so serious I don’t think you can expect a definitive answer on here. I certainly can’t be dogmatic as it’s outside my field of expertise.

If you withdraw and have a fit I guess you lose your driving licence.

I would see a neurologist who can advise depending whether it was a temporal lobe, focal, partial or grand mal seizure. Each need different approaches.

You are on the equivalent of about 30mg of oxazepam or 15 of diazepam. So mid range for anxiety.

And I struggle below this at the moment.

I never had a patient cope with gabapentin for pain let alone fits or tension, however pregabalin is similar and well tolerated BUT you would have to wean off that someday.

Please see a neurologist if you can.?

 

Could you add your history to the signature bit of the profile as it’s easier to advise.

Best wishes

Dick

 

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Thank you for your reply. I have updated my signature.

 

Yes, it does sound like I may need to go back to a neurologist to do this safely.

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Can you define cautious taper..?? Reduction size, rate, ammount reduced berore problems.. etc...

 

Be back in a couple of days, sorry.. 

 

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I intend to taper very slowly and hold my dosage if needed during the taper if withdrawal symptoms become very uncomfortable or dangerous.
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I have had vestibular migraines since I quit benzos. I think Gaba is actually helping...whenever I take it, the vertigo goes away.

However - is my body just needing “more” of it? And that’s the cause of my vertigo and not benzos?

 

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Thanks for sharing, whether the gabapentin helping or causing a dependency at a certain point is an important thing to consider.

 

I see in your signature that you went cold turkey in a detox program--if you wouldn't mind sharing about that experience, I would love to know anything that you can tell me about that because tapering on my own has been a huge failure.

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Life on Mars-

 

It was a living hell.

I’m not sure if the gaba helped or made it worse. I’m guessing it kept me alive and from seizing. I was told I could take 2 months to detox and they ripped me off illegally and I was too sick to call anyone for help.

I hallucinated, brain zaps, and my HR was 160+.

Blood pressure was in the 200’s.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

Like I said, I’m guessing the gaba prevented me from seizing.

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Meganz, that's an absolutely awful experience, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. This is the problem-I think that if I were to go inpatient somewhere, they would just be totallly ignorant of the risks. I just wish that I could go somewhere where I could be supervised for seizures by people who know what they are doing while I stop the medication. I'm not sure that a place like that exists!
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It doesn’t! They all think it’s ok to just stop! Like other drugs.

 

The smartest plan is to taper at home in an outpatient setting.

And maybe ask for an anti seizure med.

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Thanks, I agree. I will just keep plodding along with my slow taper and see a neurologist if it seems like I'm going to need something other than gabapentin (the only anti-convulsant my psychiatrist is willing to prescribe).
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It doesn’t! They all think it’s ok to just stop! Like other drugs.

 

The smartest plan is to taper at home in an outpatient setting.

And maybe ask for an anti seizure med.

I agree 100%. I will never do inpatient detox again.
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