Gabitril

Greetings,

 

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Gabitril?  If so, did it help with the withdrawal symptoms when coming of benzo's?  I am coming off of 1.75 mg. of Klonopin.

 

Thanks!

From the Ashton Manual -

 

There have been some reports that gabapentin (Neurontin), tiagabine (Gabitril) and possibly pregabalin (yet to be licensed) help with sleep and anxiety in withdrawal. However, there have been no controlled trials and it is not clear whether these drugs themselves cause withdrawal effects. In practice additional drugs are seldom needed with very slow benzodiazepine tapering. Only in special situations there might be a place for an antidepressant, beta blocker, sedative antihistamine or anticonvulsant. There is no need to avoid ordinary pain killers such as Tylenol, Feldene etc. for everyday aches and pains.

 

You can also type this in the search function and see what other buddies have said about it. Use search on the main forum page to get the widest search. 

i was put on 1200mg of gabapentin (Neurontin) in detox. i am currently on 300mg now. still titrating. having a hell of a time with it. wish i would have never been put on it...

Gabitril is dangerous IMO.

 

Here are some side effects from it-

 

 

dizziness

tiredness

nervousness

sleepiness

difficulty concentrating

tremor

Be careful when you first start taking Gabitril. Make sure you don't have a problem with sleepiness or dizziness when driving or doing anything else that might be dangerous.

 

Some other side effects mentioned even less often were:

 

nausea

vomiting

diarrhea

weakness (for example, sometimes people say that their knees buckled)

irritability

confusion

If you notice any of these problems, call the doctor's office. Sometimes the doctor can help by changing the amount of Gabitril you take or how you take it. Don't stop taking Gabitril or change the amount you take without the doctor's guidance.

 

Some of these problems become more severe when higher doses of Gabitril are taken, or when the dosage is increased rapidly.

 

Be sure to read about the serious side effects so you will be aware of a few serious problems that could arise when you take Gabitril. These serious problems are very rare but everyone who takes this medicine should at least be aware of them.

 

Allergic reactions

There do not appear to be any allergic reactions to Gabitril.

 

Long-term side effects

There are no known long-term side effects of Gabitril.

 

From Epilepsy.com

 

I am on a Epileptic Forum, and I will tell you this particular medication, most have had trouble with.

 

I am no doc, so he can tell you more about it.

 

Good luck.

From the Ashton Manual -

 

There have been some reports that gabapentin (Neurontin), tiagabine (Gabitril) and possibly pregabalin (yet to be licensed) help with sleep and anxiety in withdrawal. However, there have been no controlled trials and it is not clear whether these drugs themselves cause withdrawal effects. In practice additional drugs are seldom needed with very slow benzodiazepine tapering. Only in special situations there might be a place for an antidepressant, beta blocker, sedative antihistamine or anticonvulsant. There is no need to avoid ordinary pain killers such as Tylenol, Feldene etc. for everyday aches and pains.

 

You can also type this in the search function and see what other buddies have said about it. Use search on the main forum page to get the widest search. 

 

Pregabalin is a.k.a. Lyrica (which has been out for awhile, but I think was new when Ashton was published), which is what I'm tapering from right now. I was on a relatively low dose (150 mg) - the max prescribed dose is ~600 mg. I had no trouble going from 150 --> 75 --> 50 --> 25, by doing that every week. When I got to 25 mg, my p-doc said just to stop, or to spread out the dose (every other day, every two days, etc., until I was done). I found that going 24 hours without it put me into severe w/d (anxiety, chronic pain, nausea, palpitations), so I'm water tapering from that now (thankfully the capsules are water soluble). Since I'm coming off of it prior to starting my benzo taper, I don't know how effective it would be for helping with benzo w/d, but it is definitely a med, that for me, has been difficult to come off of, and I am having to go slowly.

 

I will say that while on it, it did help with sleep and chronic pain, and possibly anxiety (although I was already on K when I started it). It is still proprietary, so my copay is $45 for whatever the doctor writes, but her last script for the tapering was for 25 mg taken twice a day and that is lasting me quite awhile. If you start it, you have to taper up slowly until you reach an optimum dose, and it does seem to be a med that doesn't lose effectiveness with time (e.g., tolerance), but, my personal experience (and my GP shared this about some of his other patients as well) is that it is difficult for some people to come off of.

 

Marie

Thanks everyone for your info.  This is very helpful.

Greetings,

 

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Gabitril?  If so, did it help with the withdrawal symptoms when coming of benzo's?  I am coming off of 1.75 mg. of Klonopin.

 

Thanks!

 

I was prescribed this before I began my taper and it didn't help with the tolerance withdrawal I was already in at all.  I got off it immediately.  It is also very sedating and made me feel like I was drunk.

You can take a look at the threads about gabapentin/ Neurontin and Lyrica for more info, too. 

 

I don't know anybody who has gotten substantial help with benzo withdrawal by taking Neurontin.  And if you add it now, you will have to taper it when the time comes.  But it can be liquid titrated easily, it's fully water soluble.

I had a horrible experience with Neurontin and threw up so much (after 4 days of 300 mg. daily) that I ended up in the ER (and Neurontin is supposed to be one of the "safer" anti-seizure drugs)!