Progressive House Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Hi. I saw my pdoc today and decided to switch from gabitril to neurontin. I liked what gabitril did for my anxity (thought it was a very good med) but got these side effects cognitive delays (my vocabulary became very diminished). In my line of work, I am selling medical equipment to surgeons who went to 16+ years of school so this was not good. Refering to the physics properties of medical imaging equipment as thing-a-majigies doesn't give me much credability! Talking like my tongue just got a shot of novicane is not good during sales presentations. Edema. My hands, feet and face are swollen. I'm a good looking guy and my appearance is important to me. This did not make me feel attractive. Possible hairloss. I'm still trying to pinpoint if it was the gabitril. Arthritic-like feeling in my hands. I have a family history of osteoarthrits so this may be a sign of what's to come. Yuk. Vertigo (at a dose of 32 mg/day). I can handle this side effect the best since I used to do alot of GHB. Okay... so you all my be thinking that neurontin will give me these same side effects (which it probably will). My goal is to use neurontin in a high dose/low dose fashion. Possibly even in a PRN fashion. This will most-likely limit the side effects. If I find that I am getting no therapeutic benefit from neurontin, I will switch back to Gabitril and use Gabitril in a PRN fashion. I know you guys here on this board prolly wouldn't advise this because of seizure risk but I don't care. I'm gonna do it. I'm starting off my neurontin dose at 900 mg/day soon to be at 1800 mg/day before my next Pdoc appt in 3 weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaRufina Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Okay... so you all my be thinking that neurontin will give me these same side effects (which it probably will). My goal is to use neurontin in a high dose/low dose fashion. Possibly even in a PRN fashion. This will most-likely limit the side effects. If I find that I am getting no therapeutic benefit from neurontin, I will switch back to Gabitril and use Gabitril in a PRN fashion. I know you guys here on this board prolly wouldn't advise this because of seizure risk but I don't care. I'm gonna do it. I'm starting off my neurontin dose at 900 mg/day soon to be at 1800 mg/day before my next Pdoc appt in 3 weeks! Neurontin won't necessarily give you the same side effects. But you won't be able to tell. If you're just going to be skipping around and trying all sorts of shit, you might as well be eating fruitloops and snorting pixie sticks as far as judging how effective it will all turn out to be. And for side effects, who knows what you'll get? You won't be able to tell because you'll be messing with your dose/med/head so who knows what the real side effects may be or for how long. Take the meds as directed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nalgas Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Neurontin is generally not so much of a PRN thing. It's more of a take-it-three-times-a-day-consistently thing. Some things work fine as needed. Others work a lot better (or even at all) if you have a steady amount in your bloodstream. Bouncing the level up and down constantly is a good way to have more/worse side effects, not fewer. Sometimes they can get better over time as your brain adjusts to the med, but it's hard to tell if you don't give it the chance to. Also, 900mg/day is a bit high to start. Your current plan has pretty decent odds to make you feel worse instead of better or just not work at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Progressive House Posted September 27, 2007 Author Share Posted September 27, 2007 I appreciate your input. However, it's not like I'm using a kitchen sink approach with my meds. I'm stopping gabitril now and am hoping the swelling goes away. That's what I'm most concerned with (aside from the possible hairloss). If these side effects don't go away, it's obviously the neurontin that will be keeping them present. Make sense? If the side effects stay present, I will have to lower my neurontin dose or strictly take it PRN (for anxiety) to keep those side effects at bay. By the way, I am taking my meds as directed. This is the approach my pdoc and I came up with. I can't afford to do alot of unaggressive trial and error because my panic and intrusive thoughts are running full boar right now. Your advice is much appreciated. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Progressive House Posted September 27, 2007 Author Share Posted September 27, 2007 Neurontin is generally not so much of a PRN thing. It's more of a take-it-three-times-a-day-consistently thing. I disagree. I've read alot from people taking it PRN. My pdoc perscribes it to a few of his patients PRN too. With Gabitril, I liked the effects it gave me for up to 5 hours after taking the dose. After that, it pooped out unless I took another dose. Unfortunately, the therapeutic effect I liked about the drug directly corilated with the cognitive delays. The better I felt (usually 1-5 hrs after taking the drug), the more speech impediment and brain fog I had. This is why I am looking to take it PRN. I won't take it on days when I have alot of social interaction for work but I will take it on days when I can afford looking like a blithering drunk (office days, email time, product training). This side effect is entirely dose/time dependent. However, I'm going to try neurontin first and see what I think of it. Make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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