Other Forms: tablets, oral solution

What is Neurontin: Neurontin is an anticonvulsant
Read up on these sections if you haven't done so already, because they cover a lot of information about multiple medications that I'm not going to repeat on many pages.  I'm just autistic that way about not repeating myself.

What are Neurontin's FDA Approved Uses:  Neurontin was approved in December 1993 a an adjunctive treatment (i.e. you must use another drug along with it) for  partial epileptic seizures in adults and children. 

These include:

• Simple partial seizures - you're still awake (more or less), with symptoms such as one or two limbs spazzing out or wacky visual or other sensory distortions.  Think Alice in Wonderland, as Lewis Carroll must have had some serious temporal lobe issues.  The fist link will take you to a better explanation.  For a really detailed explanation of what a simple partial seizure is, click here.

• Complex partial seziures - the people around you think you're just acting out to get attention.  In reality you have no control over what's happening.  Again, click there for the basics, click here for what neurologists think about

Neurontin (gabapentin) is also approved for postherpetic neuralgia (the physical pain from shingles) in adults.

 Days to Reach a Steady State: Two days after you're taking it at least three times a day.

When you're fully saturated with the medication and less prone to peaks and valleys of effects. You still might have peaks of effect after taking many meds, but with a lot of the meds you'll have fewer valleys after this point. In theory anyway.

How Long Neurontin Takes to Work: It should start to do something for you a couple days after you reach 900mg a day. But because of the whole bioavailability issue it may not be until you're somewhere in the range of 900-1800mg a day, presuming it will do anything at all for you.

Neurontin's Half-Life: 5-7 hours.

Average Time for Neurontin to Clear Out of Your System:   It's out of your system in 2 days.

How to Stop Taking Neurontin: Your doctor should be recommending that you reduce your dosage by 100-300mg a day every two days, 5-7 hour half-life, if not more slowly than that.

Like any anticonvulsant, if you've been taking Neurontin (gabapentin) for more than a couple months and you're up to or above 900mg a day you just can't stop cold turkey if you're not at the therapeutic dosage for another anticonvulsant that you know works for you, otherwise you risk  partial-complex, absence seizures or even tonic-clonic grand mals, despite your never having had a seizure disorder before!   The risk is worse if you're taking a lithium variant, and/or any antidepressant, especially Wellbutrin (bupropion hydrochloride).  Anyone with a history of a seizure disorder who needs to stop taking an anticonvulsant cold turkey needs to be discussing that with two neurologists and not getting your information from some stupid web site. Get off your computer and start making appointments!

Comments: Be sure to read the section on anticonvulsants if you haven't done so already.

Neurontin (gabapentin) is the weakest of the semi-official mood stabilizers,  but it works for me! Yet I am a known freak. Neurontin's main problem is in the digestive tract, and that is allegedly going to be solved with the new and improved version, pregabalin, which might be on the market by the time you read this. As you can see from the data above, Neurontin's bioavailability tends to be an issue as you take more of it. I've seen other figures indicating even lower bioavailability of Neurontin (gabapentin).  Maybe it's because Neurontin (gabapentin) pretty much bypasses your liver and gets to your brain through the L-amino acid pathways.  Thus because Mouse and I are total freaks with food allergies and quite sensitive to those sorts of things, we probably get way more Neurontin (gabapentin) absorption than most people.  This is just a wild-ass guess on our parts.

Neurontin (gabapentin) has helped Mouse with her restless leg syndrome, (RLS) and may be providing her with some mood stabilization.  Unless she was taking too much, then her RLS was the worst on the planet.  She'd sleep right through it but I'd be bruised and kicked out of bed.

The whole question comes up, is Neurontin (gabapentin) worth a damn as a mood stabilizer? Well it certainly shouldn't be used first without some good reason, such as a comorbid chronic pain ailment or partial onset seizures. Basically the existing data show that Neurontin (gabapentin) isn't that good of a mood stabilizer. At least, not if other stuff seems to work. However, if nothing else is working, adding Neurontin to the mix can sometimes help, although apparently not if rapid cycling is involved. It has helped me. How can I tell? First I tried to see what life would be like without Neurontin (gabapentin). Boy was that a bad time. Since then I switched from 300mg four times a day to 400mg three times a day, and found it to be less effective. If I missed a dose I was more susceptible to breakthrough hypomanias or depressions. At 400mg four times a day my memory is a bit worse, but if I forget a dose (which is now more likely since my memory is worse; like, duh) I don't have a breakthrough event. The reports at Remedy Find and on the bipolar support groups follow the studies - generally useless for most people, but the one missing piece or the one drug that worked when all else failed for a small number of people.

Neurontin (gabapentin) can also be effective in treating panic/anxiety disorders. It's not as good as the benzodiazepines or the antipsychotics in that regard, but if you're not able to tolerate any medication from either of those classes, Neurontin (gabapentin) is certainly better than nothing. I've found it most helpful in dealing with my agoraphobia. It doesn't do squat for Mouse's anxiety. Like people in the one study referenced, Mouse found Neurontin (gabapentin) to aggravate her OCD.

It did start to work on my epilepsy once I got up to the 900mg a day level. Mouse told me the absence seizures were fewer (but they didn't vanish completely until Topamax (topiramate) was added to the cocktail) and the partial-complex events also decreased in frequency and severity. Again it took the addition of Topamax (topiramate) to finally deal with all of my epileptic symptoms. But Neurontin (gabapentin) is quite the helpful medication for me.

As for all the pain stuff, it has helped Mouse with her fibromyalgia, with both the pain and the quality of her sleep, but she hits a wall of side effects. Above 1,200mg a day her memory becomes too bad for her to function. At 1,200mg a day Neurontin (gabapentin) helps a lot, but it could help more were it not for the memory issues. Other people we know taking it for chronic pain have reported a mixed bag of results, some positive some where nothing happened. The people posting at Remedy Find report along similar lines, with a few noting intolerable side effects.

Additionally Neurontin (gabapentin) has been studied and used for things like agitation in dementia patients, cocaine dependency and cravings, and alcohol withdrawal.

It all comes down to being literally able to stomach this stuff. Neurontin (It all comes down to being literally able to stomach this stuff. Neurontin (gabapentin) is an effective medication for some people, a worthless sugar pill for others, and an evil source of side effects for a small unfortunate few. The real problem seems to have been Parke-Davis' allegedly sleazy marketing practices, which prevented people from getting the correct medications and has led to an anti-anticonvulsant backlash. They took a good thing and oversold it, screwing it up for everyone else.  Expect the backlash to be worse now that Pfizer has settled for over 400 million dollars.

Now the Pfizer has acquired Parke-Davis and Neurontin (gabapentin) is to be superseded by Lyrica (pregablin), who knows what things will be like? Will Lyrica (pregablin) be used for as many off-label applications? Will it be more or even less effective in some applications? Neurontin (gabapentin) will still be on the market, but things will be different.

Have questions about Neurontin or its successor Lyrica?  Want to read about experiences other people have had with Neurontin and Lyrica? Check out our Neurontin & Lyrica Board.

As of 12/08/2003. In US dollars, for re-importation to the US. Clicking on the link with take you to Canada Pharmacy. 

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