Neurontin causing panic / anxiety?

[subgirl]

Okay folks, got a med question for you. I am up to 2-300mg tablets thrice daily (so, 600mg 3x per day or 1800mg per day) and while it's helping with the muscular pain (woo!) the emotional roller coaster? Not liking this so much.

I'm having horrific panic attacks. Like, complete emotional fail. Just... shit ain't happening

Comments

Help!

[jen1201]

I realize this was posted a very long time ago, but I've read through the whole discussion, and I'm wondering what you determined in regards to whether Neurontin was causing you the shakes?

I've been taking it for 28 days. I started on 200mg at bedtime, then dropped to 100mg because it was causing excessive daytime sleepiness. Since then I've gone between 100 & 200mg at bedtime.

I began having a flare 4 days ago, seemingly triggered by getting adjusted by a chiropractor. I'm desperate for relief! Initially, Neurontin seemed to soothe me a bit, & since I wasn't in much pain, I couldn't say if it helped with that or not, but the past 2 or 3 weeks, I've been feeling super disoriented, and, like the previous poster said, I'm unable to tell reality from my dreams. I've also been getting very angry on occasion, which isn't typical of me, and now I've started experiencing panic attacks-- I'm in the midst of one at this moment.

On account of the increased panic, I took the neurontin during the day yesterday, morning, afternoon, and then one at bedtime. Yesterday was also horrible in terms of crippling anxiety and it seems like the increased neurontin might be causing it, however since I've had such panic in the past, I don't know if it's just re-emerging, or is a reaction I'm having to the neurontin....

HELP!

RE: Help!

[subgirl]

Wow! I have been through so much since I made this post, I honestly don't remember if *that time* the anxiety was from the neurontin, but I DID stop taking it not long after starting it. I remember it just didn't help enough (any) to justify taking it. I did try Lyrica after that and it was AWFUL. I had horrible nightmares and couldn't function and couldn't even titrate up on it past a week.

However, I was prescribed neurontin/gabapentin again last year after being hospitalised for an epic Crohn's flare (was diagnosed in the hospital, during my stay). I was on a whole bunch of meds out of inpatient and they tried to start me on that one since I couldn't remember if it did anything or not and was willing to try it again to see if it helped any. I was only taking it at night to start the titration up and had very clear depression and an unusual bleak response about 30 mins after taking the neurontin.

I'm still on other meds that don't *help* the anxiety and still suffer from anxiety and panic attacks pretty badly, but the Gabapentin didn't help any of that. I'd definitely not stop taking it cold turkey, but like the other commenters suggested to me, discuss it with your doc. It definitely caused enough negative side effects that weren't controllable and didn't help enough to warrant dealing with the depression/anxiety that I stopped taking it. After both instances I am fairly convinced that isn't a med that is worth the struggle for me, and anxiety is definitely a side effect.

I really hope something helps and I really understand the fear and the panic that leads to a stab in the dark of replying to a 6 year old post.

I'm apparently still getting notifications for this ^_^ so if you have any other questions do reply! I'll try and help if I can!