Comments | fibromyalgia: Neurontin causing panic / anxiety?

subgirl in fibromyalgia

Neurontin causing panic / anxiety?

May 14, 2010 16:35

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 ( Read more... )

anxiety, neurontin

Comments 30

drindod May 15 2010, 01:34:56 UTC

You might want to ask your doctor if the worsening of your anxiety could be allergy related, and whether there is anything in the medication (or any of its ingredients) that could cause an allergic reaction and/or sensitivities.

subgirl May 15 2010, 01:40:37 UTC

An allergy? Why would an allergy be related to panic attacks?

drindod May 15 2010, 02:32:05 UTC

Panic/anxiety attacks can sometimes be a symptom of an allergic reaction.
This explains it much better than me (sorry, it's been a long and stressy brainfog day).

I was recently talking with my doctor about (brand/generic) medications and their inactive ingredients because I had read that they can sometimes cause allergic reactions or sensitivities. I don't know if Neurontin/Gabapentin has ingredients that would do so, but I brought it up in case it might be worth mentioning (personally, I'm not a fan of Neurontin. I was taking Gabapentin a year and a half ago and it did have some benefits at first, but after 4-5 months I had to stop because it was making my bloodsugars spike).

subgirl May 15 2010, 03:24:56 UTC

Hrm. I am aware that there are often fillers and things put into pills, as well as the coatings and capsules being potentially allergenic, but I wasn't aware of anxiety as an allergic reaction. I will look more into it.

sa_hall May 15 2010, 12:49:28 UTC

I do well on neurontin. I did have to ramp up very slowly, though, because it upset my stomach at first and caused grogginess. The thing about neurontin is that most of the is that usually the side effects go away in a month or so. I would ask your doctor if you could back off on the dose for a while -- that might help you to figure out if neurontin as causing the anxiety. It might also give your body might also get used to the stuff and that side effect (if it is caused by the neurontin) may go away ( ... )

goodbadgirl May 16 2010, 00:55:12 UTC

It sounds like they ramped you up way too fast. I, too, was started on 1800mg a day - I didn't eat or sit down for two weeks.

Actually, you're supposed to start at 300mg a day - and stay there for a least a week if not a bit longer, then up to 600.....then up...

It's called titration, or what I believe Big Pharma likes to say: "how we get you hooked." :) Point being, you can't really start at such a high dosage and expect to get any results and you can't just stop taking it either - always a slow ramp up and/or down.

Your doc technically should have you start taking just 300mg a day for a while and then work you back up again....I have lyme and fibro and a host of other things and personally neurontin's never done much for me...but I would call your doc and the manufacturer of the drug come Monday and ask about this.

I hate it when they forget to tell us super crucial things that will affect our lives for weeks or months. They would remember if they had to do it, I'm sure of it.

Best of luck. xo

subgirl May 16 2010, 01:45:02 UTC

Oh! I didn't mention it in this post bcause I posted earlier, but I did not start at this dose! Ack! That would suck! I probably should have said that i started at 1 300mg capsule at night the first week of April and have worked up to this dose incrementally since then. I absolutely have to start small on any meds as I have (as this med has shown) weird pysiology and react oddly to medications oftentimes.

Thanks for the concern though! I'll edit my post in a but to reflect that this is a final dose after titratiob, not an initial one.

goodbadgirl May 16 2010, 18:52:45 UTC

Oh phew. Welll, not phew that it's causing unpleasant side effects, but phew, at least someone told you to ramp up.

FWIW - I know lots of folks who have lots of unexplained symptoms on drugs like these. I hate it when they turn our brain into guinea pigs.

I hope you get a better med that works for you. xoxo

psomom May 16 2010, 01:58:03 UTC

Gabapentin destroyed me in that I could not tell what was a real memory and what was something I dreamed. I then started to have panic attacks because I couldn't tell the difference.

I'm no longer on that drug. =/

Can you try to lower the dose and see if it improves?

Help! jen1201 August 28 2016, 15:20:51 UTC

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 ( ... )

RE: Help! subgirl August 28 2016, 17:41:27 UTC

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 ( ... )