Gabapentine (sp?) for Anxiety in BP I mixed episodes

[lanry78]

I seee my Pdoc today and was going to ask about Gabapentin ... Main reason is my extremely high levels of anxiety even on benzos / low dose of zoloft addded recently, and my AP which helps my anxiety alot as well. Problem is my anxiety levels are still sky high. 

 

I was wondering if anyone else takes Gabapentin for Anxiety and what their experiences were ? Gaba and Klonopin users together would also be very helpful.

 

Not even sure if Pdoc will go for this if it is what I am telling him I want it for either ?

[CherryBlossom]

Gabapentin helps a lot with my anxiety. It's good for mania and also good for anxiety. I don't take it everyday like my doctor tells me to because it chills me out too much. I am on 1500mg. I take it and in a hour i am relax. I never been on a benzo so i cannot compare the feeling.nor can i help with how i feel on it with a benzo.

 

I would say give it a try. I wish you the best!

Edited May 22, 2014 by CherryBlossom

[San]

I'm going to move this to Anti-Convulsants, you may get many more replies there. I'll leave a link up in the Bipolar forum so you can easily find it.

 

I found gabapentin, even at low doses (you can go incredibly high with it, I've seen people on 3200mg! I took 900mg, 300mg x 3 daily) crushes your anxiety, helps with mood. It wasn't strong enough for my mania, a LOT was going on at the time, and I switched to topamax, but gabapentin is amazing for anxiety, and is sedating for the first few days, but that goes away.

 

I also found it didn't have the cognitive effects (like "dopamax" for example) a lot of others have. Try bringing it up with your pdoc, it's worth a shot, right? It's in the anti-convulsant family, and isn't habit forming like a benzo can be after time, you don't get tolerant to it, and I found it helped anxiety a lot. 

 

It's also inexpensive if you don't have insurance, or have to pay co-pays. 

 

Honestly, if topamax hadn't worked out, i would have kept raising the Gabapentin with my pdoc. I could probably have stopped my other anxiety meds too.

 

good luck, sending positive thoughts.

[melissaw72]

I did not find gabapentin to help with anxiety (or anything).  I know a lot of people find it useful, but I did not.  I was up to 4,000 mg/day, and the weaning off of it when we realized it was doing nothing was extremely hard.

[crtclms]

I love gabapentin, but it pooped out.

[Revan]

I take clonazepam as needed, my pdoc has mentioned gabapentin as a possible replacement for the clonazepam. However I see no need as the clonazepam is fine.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Revan

[Seahawks0101]

I've been taking gabapention at a low dose(100 mg) for about a week and a half.  It does seem to take the edge off but I think it would be more effective at a higher dose.  

[eccentrik_drummer_chik]

I take clonazepam every morning, and when I have to leave the house to be in public or deal with people, I take gabapentin and it deals with the extra jitters these situations can bring up.  Now looking at other people's dosages, I see I have low dose capsules, 100 mg.  Sometimes I take more than one if needed.  I find it takes the edge off without causing the kind of numbness that benzos cause for me.

[MisterJoshua]

I was on gabapentin and klonopin at the same time. I discontinued it when it became apparent it was doing nothing for me. I still take klonopin prn as my main anxiety reducer. It doesn't make me fuzzy or spacey.

[malachite]

I took gabapentin for anxiety. I was at a pretty low dose though (don't know why pdoc didn't up it) and it did nothing for my anxiety. But that doesn't mean it won't for you.