My 17 yr old dog gets 100mg a day for joint pain.

I have been taking Gabapentin for 4 or 5 yrs. for diabetic neuropathy in my legs. I am 71 and take 3 100mg pills a day with no side effects.

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Veterinarians still think it is.

It can be used off label for anxiety. Mood stabilizers are a different thing altogether.

My internist prescribed a Neurontin 'trial sample'. After 3 days I advised him the side effects were not acceptable, and I had not noticed any of the advantages anticipated. I won't be taking it again.

I recently developed a pinched nerve that was causing me significant pain in my right shoulder and down my right arm. The doctor prescribed Gabapentin. I've been on it for something like three weeks. Between that an the occasional Naproxin, it's keeping the pain under control.

Going to PT to try and resolve the root cause.

Docs at work use them a lot as part of the treatment regimen for nerve and muscle pains. Even part of alcohol/drug detox, since muscle pain is sometimes part of the withdrawal.

I tried to take it two times. It made me nauseated and sick after just a couple doses. Doc put me on Lyrica, a drug that’s related to it. I can tolerate it better, it does help my sciatica leg pain but it makes me tired. It’s also controlled like a narcotic. I guess there’s potential for abuse.

My doc, who is also a friend of mine says it is a really good drug and he has been prescribing it for years. I was prescribed 300mg x 3 a day for RLS and nerve pain. I did not like they way it made me feel and quit taking it after 3 weeks.

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Originally posted by Keystoner:
Veterinarians still think it is.

Veterinarians use all kinds of drugs on animals that don't behave the same way in humans.

I’m 51 and use it occasionally for pain related to 2 bulging disks. I take it for short intervals, several weeks at the most, and have had no side effects.

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Originally posted by Sigfest:
I tried to take it two times. It made me nauseated and sick after just a couple doses. Doc put me on Lyrica, a drug that’s related to it. I can tolerate it better, it does help my sciatica leg pain but it makes me tired. It’s also controlled like a narcotic. I guess there’s potential for abuse.

This reminded me. I was on lyrica several years. Weight gain big time.
My insurance stopped covering it and I had to go to gab.

My nearly 20 year old cat is on it for arthritis. Compounding pharmacist makes it into a transdermal and I rub it in her ear every morning while she is eating. I really thought it’d be a fight but nothing deters her from breakfast.

I was advised to wear a glove so I wouldn’t absorb any of it. Nearly 3 years and I only forgot the glove once.

I have been taking 300mg x 4 daily for 5+ years. I have a good bit of nerve damage from a bout with Swine Flu. It helps a bit. No ill effects that I know of. I am 51 years of age.

It was prescribed for Trigeminal Neuralgia for me. That was some time ago. I don’t remember the dose. I seem to remember they kept increasing the dosage to get me to a certain level. As I recall I was told the medication could cause convulsions with abrupt starts and stops. They would test for levels in my system. I remember it made me tired.

I was taking it for quite a stint a few years before my spinal surgery. I tried them all (common prescriptions) for severe neuropathy, I just hated the way it made me feel. It took surgery to remedy my pain... There are some powerful drugs that a lot of individuals benefit from though.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
It is nonaddictive and was used intially to treat epilepsy. These days it is used primarily to treat neuropathy and pain. In your age group in can cause mental dulling. It is better than opiates for pain.

It might be non-addictive, but holy hell if you have to stop taking it PLEASE know that you have to taper off. My doc tried to get me to stop cold turkey but that made me feel like I was having a heart attack about 2 days later until I took one. It took me about 3 months to taper off.

I have taken it for several years for nerve pain. No side effects that I am aware of.

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It might be non-addictive, but holy hell if you have to stop taking it PLEASE know that you have to taper off. My doc tried to get me to stop cold turkey but that made me feel like I was having a heart attack about 2 days later until I took one. It took me about 3 months to taper off.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Addiction includes powerful craving to continue the drug. You experienced withdrawal which is bad enough. Many of the antidepressants, ie Paxil are not addictive but require tapering. The drug companies like to use the term "discontinuation syndrome."

I was on it for 5 days after my elbow surgery 3 years ago. It did supress the worst of the pain (I got 7 plates, 13 screws, well over 20 staples and 2 cc of demineralized bone matrix) while I took it. The doc had to move the nerve bundle to get the plates in place and mine didn’t go to sleep like everyone else’s, so Neurontin/Gabapentin did some of that job.

Morphine does nothing for me except make me nauseous, so I refused it while in the hospital. Between Percoset (which I also don’t like) and Neurontin, the pain was tolerable.