Benzos GABAPENTIN and DIAZEPAM

So for anybody that hasn't read about me complaining on being in agony every single day with my back and leg pain:

In simple terms : Weight lifting injury, muscle spams, MRI showed nothing, Inflammation bloods showed nothing, Tramadol and Codeine aint working, totally agony every single day.

So I'm just out of an appointment at the hospital and the consultant gave me a referral to tell my GP to put me on GABAPENTIN,

However, I am prescribed 30mgs a day Diazepam from a Psychiatrist for anxiety and following a bad seizure a couple of years ago, and when I spoke to Dr the last time she said if she was putting me on an anti-seizure medication she would have to take me off Benzos (NO CHANCE)

It is 2 separate clinics so as far as I am aware the only person who has authority to reduce my Diazepam is the Psychiatrist who must see me first.

Basically , I need the Benzos for mental health and I need Gabas (maybe) for severe pain,
Can I be on Gabapentins and Benzos at the same time ? Obv I can but in GP's eyes ?

Worst case scenario : Self medicate with Benzos and never have to worry about W/D seizure because I'd be on GABAPENTIN anyway.

You can, but it might be wise to decrease the benzo intake, as gabapentin will potentate it, for a few weeks or until you acclimate to the other medication.

I asked my neuro the same thing years ago, she just shrugged and chucked the script at me. You'll likely get more conservative advice here than from a prescriber, depending on how well they know the medications.

Gabapentin will be titrated up slowly, at any rate, so gauge your own response to it, and call the docs if needed, for clarity.

Yes you can take both at the same time but you will probably not want to reduce your benzo intake as above poster mentioned if you are dependant on them. Gabapentin does potentiate benzos but does not replace them as their mechanisms of action are completely unrelated. Taking you off benzos because you are put on gabapentin is riddiculous, however gabapentin has an anxiety reducing effect too, so if you are lucky, you might be able to slowly taper the benzos and then rely completely on the gabapentin instead.

Hope it works out for you.

Toz said:

Gabapentin does potentiate benzos but does not replace them as their mechanisms of action are completely unrelated. Taking you off benzos because you are put on gabapentin is riddiculous

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This is what I need to explain to my doctor then , I don't know what her reason for that was anyway , she never said

I'm on Lyrica and temazepam and while not exactly the same they more or less serve the same purpose. I don't see any reason to take you off diazepam but like Toz said the benzo will feel stronger. I was able to cut my temazepam dose in half once I started Lyrica.

^^ My point exactly.

2 years ago I tried lyrica to diminish my benzo dosage (I was at 40mg Valium [diazepam] /day)
It helped a lot. Used it for about 4 months, slowly tapering Diazepam until I was at 20md/day, without discomfort.
Sadly the tolerance for Lyrica goes up at an insane speed, and I had to take ridiculous dosages after only 4 months... I live in France, and I'm 100% covered, but with the price of Lyrica I can't imagine how that would change the situation if yu had to pay for it...
Anyway.
So I stopped, slowly got back on 30mg of Valium/day, BUT next week I see my addictologue and get back on Lyrica, but I'm not going to do the same mistake twice, this time I'll try to keep my tolerance at the minimum...

Just my little experience with this meds combined.

Fuz

Well I got a decent result today , that's me started on 300mgs Gabapentin per day 100mgs 3x per day,

Today I woke up snappy because I had only had about 4 hours interrupted sleep, girlfriend had to put a little bit of speed in a cup of tea to make me move,

I had hammered a fair bit of Opies last night because I was in so much pain Tramdol , Solpdol and maybe even Paramol, so the rebound sweats/anxiety from the Opies as well as hardly any sleep and a bit of speed in my system I was not in a very nice mood.

On wakening (eventually) I took 4mg Pyraz as usual and 5mg Diaz, even at that I was ratty the whole day and snapped at someone in the town for shouting and swearing at a bus driving in front of my 2yr old son.

I then got my Gaba script and took 1 x 100mg Capsule, as far as onset is concerned it does not feel like something that kicks in fast, maybe the same amount of time as tramadol , over an hour I would say, but hey , I started to slow down and feel a lot more chilled and on earth, I think it did help my pain a bit but nothing to write home about.

And as far as taking me off Diaz , that's a lot of shit , doesn't even mention any sort of interaction on the leaflet ! just some daft GP who I'll deliberately not see again, by passed the app and just got a script so no mention of it at all

Tonight I have took some Tramadol and Solpadol because that dose didn't completely remove my pain,

So I've learned that: Gabapentin IS good for anxiety and stress , as far as pain I have 5 weeks worth here then I will go back to a certain GP and ask for the dose to get put up slightly.

I don't know if they would give me Amitriptyline and Gabapentin at the same time, as that does help me at night.

Also if they will give me more Tramadol or is it a good idea to take these on top of Gaba , fuck knows ? I reckon people mix Gaba with Opiates.

As far as anxiety is concerned I now have a plan / problem : I can take my prescribed 10mgs Diaz with my 100mgs Gabapentin 3x per day and it should potentiate it in my favour.

My problem however is that I have become addicted to Pyrazolam because it just chills my brain out sooooo much, and the W/Ds from it are really bad for anybody who may be wondering, I got visual hallucinations, severe tremor, sweating, restless leg, bad crack,

hmmm....

I've never tried gabapentin but lyrica takes about 2 hours before I feel it. I've mixed tramadol with lyrica many times without any problems, I actually feel safer when I combine the two since there's less of a chance of having a seizure from the trams.

Well. Let's see. One of the mods mentioned that gabapentin shouldn't be mixed with tramadol, but there is absolutely no basis for that insofar as I am able to ascertain, seeing as how gabapentin is an anticonvulsant and thus attenuates risk of seizure from tramadol...

Insofar as the dosage of gabapentin is concerned, that is a very, very low dose. As you said, it does take a little while to kick in. Always cheers me up, as well.

Will they give you amitriptyline as well as gabapentin at the same time, why yes, they will. Those are two front-line meds for neuralgia.

Keep in mind that gabapentin somewhat lowers the bioavailability of opioids, but I'm not certain without looking it up if you need to be concerned with such at such a low dose...

You can try to stockpile diazepam so you can get off the pyrazolam, if that is what you want to do.

Tried to answer your questions there, sorry if I missed anything....

Best of luck.

Cheers for the quick replys guys, the Gabas are starting to work , eventually my dose will get risen to a stage that is sound So xxmg Gaba with 10mg Diaz 3 times a day, killing 2 birds with one stone, And I've got some Xanax so just gna take 1mg as and when required for any moments of madness