• N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | thegreenhand

Gabapentin memory loss

fryingsquirrel

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Messages
2,806
What causes this? It's very different from benzo memory loss where you don't remember things you did. It's the kind of thing where you're talking and can't remember someones name and you know them well but the name won't come to you. Sorta like the commercial for the text for answers thing where the guy is trying to remember something and is just stuck. Is there any way to prevent this, other than the obvious "quit taking gabapentin"? Is there a danger of this becoming permanent. I notice it only when I'm on a recreational dose, but my wife has done them for years and seems to have some permanent memory problems. I don't know for sure these are related to gabapentin, but that seems the most likely explanation.
 
Although I don't know exactly what is causing it, I have a few side notes to comment on in this thread. I have noticed that many anti-seizure medicines seems to have memory loss as one of the side effects. Topamax has earned a nickname of Dopamax for causing huge amounts of memory problems. (It has a reputation for causing people to forget the name of the word that they are thinking of even after discontinuation of the drug.) Therefore, I wouldn't say it is uncommon for that class of drugs to somehow make you stupid without knowing the cause.

Gabapentin is an analog of GABA, but somehow it doesn't act like GABA, which is really weird. I think that the original reason that it was created was to stimulate GABA receptors--but that seemed to fail. In fact, I don't think anyone truly knows how it acts. However, they do know it increases GABA and Glutamate levels, which might be causing the memory fog.

Also, based on my reading of the PDR, I suspect that gabapentin interferes with something in the cell cycle, which may be increasing "brain fog" over time by interfering with the body's ability to repair itself. I have come to the conclusion because gabapentin is a carcinogen in mice, causes BAD deformities in fetuses, and seems to cause cancer to grow faster in humans. Whether or not it is a carcinogen in humans is still unknown, however the data over whether gabapentin causes cancer in humans is still statistically insignificant. Still, drugs that screw with the cell cycle--they can be nasty.

So basically, you are getting a symptom. You gotta weigh whether the plusses from taking the drug outweigh the minuses. However, you might want to get some choline. I always know I feel smarter after I get a nice boost of choline, (with the subsequent boost to acetylcholine.) At least you can try to stop some of that autocannabalism.

However, a lot of this is just speculation. Honestly, I don't think most pharmacologists really know how most drugs are acting on the system. A lot of time a compound is made for one reason. However, in testing they find it doesn't work for the original purpose, but it does seem to have some interesting side effects that somehow treat another symptom. That is how viagra came to be. In addition, the first MAOIs started out as malaria treatments. The idea in drug discovery is to make something and see if it works. If it works--great. We might not know how it works, but at least we know it decreases mean free survival by 42%. Then again, I am almost certain we still don't know exactly how ethanol works. It kinda diffuses over membranes and binds to GABA receptors in some way, but I think that is all we know.

Ok. Now I am completely side tracked. I should end this rant before I end up on a completely different drug related tangent.

I mean, have you ever noticed that gabapentin looks kinda like a tangent? Carboxillic acid acid on one side, an amino group on the other--and there is a cyclohexane ring in the middle. I guess maybe if the alkyl group was longer it would be more of a tangent. Maybe that is just me.
 
Gabapentin i have noticed many of people with memory loss. if this is not the connection i would be amazed i have seen people addicted to where the will take up to fifty or more 600 mg a day
 
Gabapentin i have noticed many of people with memory loss. if this is not the connection i would be amazed i have seen people addicted to where the will take up to fifty or more 600 mg a day

They should be be careful, few drugs can be taken in such doses without serious heath problems. While neurontin does not seem to be one, this is probably because is has absorbsion issues which mean this is a waste of the drug.
 
Gabapentin i have noticed many of people with memory loss. if this is not the connection i would be amazed i have seen people addicted to where the will take up to fifty or more 600 mg a day
How to you obtain that much gabapentin? A worthless piece of shit stole a bunch of them from my momma. Luckily the Dr. was happy to give plenty more, but I'm beating the bitches ass next time I see her. Oh well, I have all of them I want and more morphine in my pocket than she will see in her whole life. To bad she'll never read this, I wish she new how high I am while she's fiending and dreaming:p
 
Is there any way to prevent this, other than the obvious "quit taking gabapentin"?
There's simply not much in the literature about this and so there's not going to be an easy answer. I think a GABA-A alpha-5 inverse agonist might help, on the grounds that gabapentin causes its problems by activation of GABA receptors; the alpha-5 subtype seems associated with cognitive difficulty and antagonizing it has nootropic effects.

Take less gabapentin?

Is there a danger of this becoming permanent. I notice it only when I'm on a recreational dose, but my wife has done them for years and seems to have some permanent memory problems. I don't know for sure these are related to gabapentin, but that seems the most likely explanation.
Probably. Memory loss on gabapentin is not uncommon:

http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f27/have-you-suffered-memory-loss-taking-neurontin-5938/
 
i assume this applies to pregabalin as well?

Yes. This is my motivation not to take pregabalin unless I need it. I forget what day it is, I forget what classes members of my team are taking. I forget assignments were assigned. I forget what I'm saying as I'm saying it sometimes.

It's almost as if my operational/short-term memory is made easily over-writable / volatile by a standard dose, yet what replaces the knowledge I'm looking for is nothing. I can equate it only to the concept of an empty file which is labelled properly. I go to where I expected data, but find none in its place.
 
If it increases glutamate directly, or raises extracellular concentrations much, then it may be causing slight excitotoxic damage, perhaps? although I do not know if its GABAergic, inhibitory action would sufficiently mitigate glutamatergic excitatory activity in such a way as to render such potential activity insignificant.

If such holds true, normal doses may be no problem, but gobbling pills by the bottle, well, homeostasis is a bitch, and it is asking, to use the technical terminology, to get royally fucked up.

I have a similar problem, that I believe may have been caused by excitotoxic damage, mainly thanks to the fact that I buggered up big time with barbs (which block AMPA type glutamate receptors, sudden withdrawal from which=rebound effect increasing excitatory AMPAr-mediated transmission whilst simultaneously causing GABA withdrawal hell) and later large-scale GBL use, which could cause potential GHB receptor mediated increased glutamatergic activity and correspondingly fuck up the hippocampus)

My problem seems very similar to yours irobeth.
 
If it increases glutamate directly, or raises extracellular concentrations much, then it may be causing slight excitotoxic damage, perhaps? although I do not know if its GABAergic, inhibitory action would sufficiently mitigate glutamatergic excitatory activity in such a way as to render such potential activity insignificant.

If such holds true, normal doses may be no problem, but gobbling pills by the bottle, well, homeostasis is a bitch, and it is asking, to use the technical terminology, to get royally fucked up.

I have a similar problem, that I believe may have been caused by excitotoxic damage, mainly thanks to the fact that I buggered up big time with barbs (which block AMPA type glutamate receptors, sudden withdrawal from which=rebound effect increasing excitatory AMPAr-mediated transmission whilst simultaneously causing GABA withdrawal hell) and later large-scale GBL use, which could cause potential GHB receptor mediated increased glutamatergic activity and correspondingly fuck up the hippocampus)

My problem seems very similar to yours irobeth.

I am taking no heroic doses, only 100mg - 200mg / day pgn; The problem seems to accelerate after continued use and retract almost immediately upon cessation.

I haven't been taking lyrica for this week and am back to normal. It's only after about 3 days of using as recommended that my memory gets 'slippery'


Of note: I have had a history of Z-drug prescriptions that I discontinued very quickly because of memory lapses. It makes me think GABA potentiation in general does bad things to memory.
 
Yes, it does, its the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.

GABAa agonists are generally memory-fuckers, particularly the barbs, and the benzos expressing a preference to alpha5 subunits on benzo-sensitive GABAa receptors.

Oddly, muscimol, at least for me, seems to produce no memory impairment whatsoever, and I would notice if it was at all prone to it, due to the fact that I generally have to pump myself full of cholinesterase inhibitors, choline, fish oil and piracetam to be able to remember much at all.

Quite strange really, considering it is a fucking potent agonist at the GABA binding site itself.

So dissapointing gaboxadol got canned, I want to try some, for I really enjoy muscimol and fly agaric over any other GABA agonist, never tried any other orthosteric agonist though, there really are not that many to be found, although of course, if one has a good spot, kilo after kilo of fly agarics are often to be found, I really need to go hunting soon and pick my supply for this winter and the coming year.

I HATE winters without any available, as I am very sensitive to the cold, my hands, feet, nose, fingers etc are always fucking freezing cold, unless it is in the middle of summer and it is blazing hot, a bit of fly agaric tincture though, and I can really see how those viking berserkers were quite happy to be charging through snow-covered terrain wearing bugger all but a loincloth, an axe and a save the whales greenpeace badge=D
 
Top