Benzos Can *anyone* tell me if there is a cross-tolerance between Gabapentin and Phenibut?

[imokay]

I have searched (a lot) and cannot find an answer, and so I come here to the City of Bluelight, land of drug nerds, seeking wisdom.

Straight to the point, I wound up with a pretty lengthy phenibut habit over the past four months, and it got just into the double digits when I switched to gabapentin four days ago. I've been taking ~2400mg, and it seriously takes away everything save for some paresthesia. I'm a big pussy, so at night to sleep I'll put 1mg of etizolam under my tongue, and so far this has all been relatively painfree. I guess I'm just curious if I should just start tapering the gabapentin at this point. I'm on day 4. I don't want a habit of either drug. I don't want a habit on any drug. Sorry if this actually has been covered here, or isn't worth a new thread, but other forums are of no help with this question.

 

[imokay]

I must say, using the advanced search feature, there's much to be learned, so maybe I'm just being impatient, I'll read through some of those, but in the meantime It'd be awesome to get some feedback.

 

[imokay]

Well, I found this in another thread, by Pinpoint, whose posts come up first in search results for "High Dose Phenibut Withdrawal," so I'll take his word for it.

IME (and I have none with Tiagabine, which is more of a GABA reuptake inhibitor) is that gabapentin, pregabalin or baclofen will all cancel the withdrawal effects of one another. So for example if you're dependent on baclofen you can use gabapentin or pregabalin to remove withdrawal symptoms or vice versa. There is cross-tolerance between gabapentin and pregabalin but neither are cross-tolerant with baclofen. Of course this is all anecdotal but it makes sense from a pharmacological standpoint. Baclofen doesn't work via the same mechanism as gabapentin or pregabalin. The former is a GABA-B agonist whereas the latter 2 are voltage-gated calcium channel blockers.

I don't believe Tiagabine would be very useful.

Also if anyone is really experienced with Gabapentin and/or Phenibut.

I was taking high doses for four months. It ended at 13g per day. I know. Let's save our time not delving into how irresponsible that is, I have issues, I use things to cover them up, it has nothing to do with phenibut and so forth.

But, 2000mg of gabapentin has completely covered the withdrawals by day. I can't get to sleep without the use of 1X.5mg etizolam, and I've never been previously dependent on benzos, and threw out most of the rest of the etizolam already. Which was kind of painful, but I don't want to be dependent on any drugs anymore.

The thing I'm wondering. I've never let myself actually feel out phenibut withdrawals on their own. I started nursing myself the very next day after my last dose, which was only 6grams. I was fine all the night and most of the next day, then I took a couple gabapentin, felt great even.

I'm on day six and I'm not sure if I'm having gabapentin side effects or phenibut withdrawals. But I've had this CRAZY itchy skin. Like. Sometimes at night it's like the skin on my abdomen is burning. I've read about paresthesia during phenibut withdrawal, but I don't know man this can get intense. I'm thinking about just stopping the gabapentin altogether and just taking .5mg etizolam if I have a crazy panic attack, and then just dealing with some inevitable sleepless nights.

I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for what I maybe should be expecting. And If It's safe to get off gabapentin. I've been reading about allergic reactions and I'm having maybe one or two of those things, but also I did quit 13g of Phenibut basically cold turkey.

If anyone's around with some wisdom to share, I'd be grateful.

 

[Solipsis]

Both gabapentin and phenibut act as calcium channel blockers. Both may act somewhere in the vicinity of 10 hours.

So I am not sure what is gained from switching from one of these drugs to another, perhaps it helps that at your dosages phenibut almost certainly also acts as GABAb agonist (whereas normally it's a question how relevant it is) - so there would be partial cross-tolerance only and switching to gabapentin may be like a partial cold turkey for the GABAb effect. That you are also taking etizolam doesn't help as it might mask withdrawals etc.

It's good that you threw out benzos, I've been dependent on them and it was absolutely terrible. Worse than opium: it took so much longer to recover.

Your dose of gabapentin isn't exactly low so it's better to taper, I would not cold turkey it... especially since you have already recently gotten of huge doses of phenibut.

Go easy. Unless you are getting side-effects that are marked as really concerning to health and not just uncomfortable, at which point take appropriate measures... it's best to taper off smoothly, should get you into less trouble.
On the other hand, gabapentin is associated with serious skin reactions so hard to say whether it's wise to contact your GP and whether you should discontinue / switch etc.

 

[strity1994]

Yes. I used 2 take pregbalin (same shit as Gaba) and when I switched to phenibut I had to dose higher than usual to get an effect.

 

[Speed King]

Both gabapentin and phenibut act as calcium channel blockers. Both may act somewhere in the vicinity of 10 hours.

So I am not sure what is gained from switching from one of these drugs to another, perhaps it helps that at your dosages phenibut almost certainly also acts as GABAb agonist (whereas normally it's a question how relevant it is) - so there would be partial cross-tolerance only and switching to gabapentin may be like a partial cold turkey for the GABAb effect. That you are also taking etizolam doesn't help as it might mask withdrawals etc.

It's good that you threw out benzos, I've been dependent on them and it was absolutely terrible. Worse than opium: it took so much longer to recover.

Your dose of gabapentin isn't exactly low so it's better to taper, I would not cold turkey it... especially since you have already recently gotten of huge doses of phenibut.

Go easy. Unless you are getting side-effects that are marked as really concerning to health and not just uncomfortable, at which point take appropriate measures... it's best to taper off smoothly, should get you into less trouble.
On the other hand, gabapentin is associated with serious skin reactions so hard to say whether it's wise to contact your GP and whether you should discontinue / switch etc.

^^This. It is worth the time going through the trouble.