hey all you life experts i need advice.
my dr wants to switch me from gabapentin to topamax because of weight gain that is making me uncomfortable (25lbs) so i was told to go cold turkey. what do i do? has anybody else gone cold turkey or weaned off? help i feel like crap and went and took just 100 mg to make me feel less crappy. ugh help!!!
When I wanted to cut down on my gabapentin (was taking 4500 mg/day), my doctor tried weaning me off, and there was a certain way he wanted me to do it. Then the spasms came back with a vengeance, so I am back to 4500 again. Get a second opinion about this.
If your physician has advised you to discontinue the medication, I am surprised he asked you to do so “cold turkey”. There are clear warning labels on the bottle regarding the serious and potential consequences for doing so. I would titrate down (wean off)to the medication. I am not a doctor, so please check with him. I have been in your situation before. I had to titrate down from Trileptal, which caused me to have spasms again, and like the member from Maine, I am back to where I started. However, I recently titrated down from 1800 mg of Gabapentine to 300. It worked for me. I have not felt sick. I would call your doctor to verify his opinion since you are getting sick. I hope you feel better soon!
Back in May I accidentally ran out and was off for 5 days. In 3 days I had 4 partial seizures and I had never had any kind of seizure before. They stopped as soon as I got my prescription refilled. So the answer is a big NO. Do not go off cold turkey!!!
I went cold turkey from 100mg and I felt like a druggie going thru withdrawals. I would recommend a SLOW reduction. I also changed from Gabapentin to Topamax because of weight gain (40 lbs) and I lost it quickly on Topamax and was relieved for that, but Topamax made me stupid as hell; and I got frightfully skinny (which has never been a problem for me). So I d/c'ed Topamax. I'm now on Nortryptyline which is working well for me. It just seems to be a crap shoot as to which meds will work, I tried 14 different ones over 18 months before I found one that worked. I just hope it keeps working. One day at a time.