I had one doctor tell me to get off Neurontin slowly, I can’t take it (even though it helped) due to GI tract problems. I am going down from 600 mg to no medicine 3 days at a time. I just ended 400 mg and today am starting 300 mg. I had TERRIBLE burning (like cigarette butts poking me) in both eyes during the night. My neurologist has prescribed Lamictal to try next. He said I can just stop the Neurontin if I want to and switch to Lamictal but I am worried about stopping it so suddenly. Have any of you stopped and switched right away, or did you gradually stop it. My internist when I tried it before said stop gradually, my neurologist says I could just stop it without doing it in steps, as I don’t have epilepsy it wouldn’t cause any problems, but I am concerned about stopping and switching cold turkey. What do you guys think? The eye pain is unbearable!!! Thanks.
Please be careful. I ended up going cold turkey off Neurontin due to insurance issues and even though I do not have epilepsy I did end having sezures. I would strongly suggest you follow the advice of the doctor that prescribed the medication.
It was the neurologist who prescribed it this time who said I could go cold turkey if I wanted to!!! YIKES!!!
I found this at Pub-med. I hope it answers some of your questions.
Gabapentin may help to control your condition but will not cure it. Continue to take gabapentin even if you feel well. Do not stop taking gabapentin without talking to your doctor, even if you experience side effects such as unusual changes in behavior or mood. If you suddenly stop taking gabapentin, you may experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, nausea, pain, and sweating. If you are taking gabapentin to treat seizures and you suddenly stop taking the medication, you may experience seizures more often. Your doctor probably will decrease your dose gradually over at least a week.
I would absolutely agree with Sarah on this one, they say it’s not something that you should have a come down / withdrawal from, but that certainly wasn’t my experience, I had most of those symptoms and it left me suicidal, please please please be very careful when you are stopping this drug, and do it slowly, I would never want anyone to go through what I did when stopping it.
I stopped it over a course of 3 days so it wasn’t immediate but it was still far too fast for my system to adjust to, so please be aware that there are side effects, and that your mood may also be affected. I had no idea that this was going to happen and I wish I had known in advance so I could have been more prepared for my experience of it.
Just a thought, please let us know how you get on.
Much love
Gracie x x x
Sarah Hobbs said:
I found this at Pub-med. I hope it answers some of your questions.
Gabapentin may help to control your condition but will not cure it. Continue to take gabapentin even if you feel well. Do not stop taking gabapentin without talking to your doctor, even if you experience side effects such as unusual changes in behavior or mood. If you suddenly stop taking gabapentin, you may experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, nausea, pain, and sweating. If you are taking gabapentin to treat seizures and you suddenly stop taking the medication, you may experience seizures more often. Your doctor probably will decrease your dose gradually over at least a week.
Pub-med, I thought that was an all-inclusive resort, just kidding.
I was at 3,600mg, my neuro/prescriber titrated to 1,200mg over the course of almost a year. We dropped it to 900mg, now I’m at 600mg.
Too many docs spoil the broth; don’t you love THEIR conflicts about OUR health!?
Won’t even touch the insurance issues…maybe later. bob
I just finished three days at 400 mg and am on my second day of 300 mg. Three days at a time seems OK to eventually get down to 100 mg and then none. I have a perscription of Lamictal waiting for me at the pharmacy but if I can stand the pain I would like to see how my system works without any medicine, for a change, for a while. Any words of wisdom on Lamictal? My God, if people who were healthy could see what they could have!!! How people do not value their health!!!
I just stopped it. It wasn’t helping the pain in my case and the side effects were causing my work and home life to suffer. I never had any problems with stopping it.
At the same time, I was taking a hefty dose of Tegretol, so I don’t know if that made any difference in quitting cold turkey or not