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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Gabapentin can reduce/eliminate opiate WD and craving?

Thanks for sharing that! That was interesting and it does make you wonder, but it is the patients who are largely positive about it. Look at ALL the Erowid trip reports, a large number of them are positive and there are a very few negative ones. But they could've been written by Pfizer reps.... Hm. :)
 
If anyone wants to read it, I wrote a thread last year about my use of gabapentin and lyrica to kick junk. I started with gabapentin, and moved to lyrica to get a feel for both's reported intoxicant potential, and their respective benefits in treating acute opiate WD.
Then I replaced gabapentin with pregabalin when that became available, and started with it on Day-1 of my cure.
After a month of absolutely no opiates, and using only what I listed on my original thread, almost all of the old WD ghost symptoms vanished. When I became aware of that, I did a fast & steep taper off of the lyrica..... and suffered no further increase or prolonging of WD symptoms.
Total time on lyrica was less than 3 months total.
Both drugs did help my damaged nerves and bone pain, with lyrica/pregabalin doing a FAR better job than morphine as a chronic pain killer.... along with having noticeable anti-depressant effects at the normal recommended theraputic dose, beyond the simple pleasure of just not hurting that morphine provided.

Note: gabapentin alone, when taken before a shot of ground poppy pods, almost completely nullified any euphoria from the pods, and essentially nullified the pods as counting towards a daily fix.
However, this did not speed the onset of opiate WD, or cause them to crash-land later...... and I only noticed their slow, normal return as the gabapentin wore off.
 
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Ive heard horror stories about Gabapentin and wouldnt recommend it at all....I knew a few people who would take Clonidine instead to help reduce withdrawl symtoms greatly combined with valiums and supposedly it helped alot with the racing heart beat , tremors , restlessness and such..
 
For the few scary anecdotes you may have heard about gabapentin, I can share eleventeen thousand more about the horrors of trying to kick junk with no recourse to anything like clonidine, valium, etc.
Many of us can't score for those things, or can't afford to.

But on the scale of cost/benefit in use to escape a moderate-to-heavy opiate addiction..... gabapentin and pregabalin have much safer side-effect profile and abuse potential than typical benzos and tranquilizers in the treatment of the inital acute WD phase.

My most stressed recommendation is to perform as rapid a taper off of any WD palliative (be it benzos, tranqs, or gabapentin/lyrica) as possible, and to take it for no longer than a month. Any longer, and withdrawals of a different type may supervene... leading to possible relapse or even a change in DOC.
 
One cautionary note i will add about gabapentin is my own experience with it after being on it for years. I am prescribed 800mg's 4 times a day but i usually don't take as much as that now. It is one of the most painful withdrawals i have experienced and this includes IV morphine and dilaudid withdrawal. Granted i have been on huge doses of it for years so that is probably why.
 
As stated above, I give the same strong caveat with gabapentin and pregabalin. Both will cause physical dependence after long term use, but at a much slower rate than opiates or benzos.

I think as well, both have a ceiling dose & quick building tolerance..... this greatly reduces their abuse and acute risk potential, as well as lengthening the amount of time it takes to develop a dependence.
This does not mean it's safe to use either for off-label addiction cures, when the best evidence of their efficacy is in anecdotal reports only.
The class of drugs that gabapentin belongs to, as mentioned before, were intended as anti-seizure/epilepsy meds..... and can cause seizures, like other related drugs. However, the risk is considered by a doctor and pharmacist to be outweighed by the drugs' potential benefits.
Any time proper medical supervision, review, and scientific study is taken out of a new medicines' uses, it becomes a game of chance...... which can usually be acceptable by taking precautions and being thorough.... but can still very risky.

It may work for most; but for a very unfortunate few, it may be very dangerous.... especially when help may be very far away. This is a truth for any drug. Any time a new or different medication regimen is implemented for an individual in the treatment of a disease, it should be done under experienced supervision first. This can be either a doctor, parent/relative, or a trustworthy and calm friend. The point is that nothing should be done in a vacuum..... especially when it comes to kicking junk.
 
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Hi, if I am out of line in the posting please let me know it is my first time. I was prescribed gabapentin but not really told why. I was taking 32 mg. of clonazepam and had been on it for 22 years. When I called a crisis line feeling depressed at night a year or so ago I gave too much information about my personal situation and was kind of red flagged. Imediately I had to come off the drug, by taper, find a new family doctor and pick up my daily dose at a local drug store. So here is how it is now, I am down to 1mg. of clonazepam. (I feel terrible) I was given gabapentin 300 mg. x3. I had been very anxious and I am guessing this was my doctors way of getting around the no benzos for me rule. I am supposed to be coming off the last 1 mg. but it is ok to take the gabapentin. I have been crying and feeling like there is no hope in anything etc. etc. Can anyone tell me if gabapentin is doing this? See if I go back to the doctor and tell him I will not get that either and will not have anything to help me. A side effect I have been having not related but I am starving and since I am a diabetic I am finding I can't control my sugars so not sure what to do as if gaba is helping with the withdrawal and anxiety if I stop taking it..............Any suggestions or help apreciated!
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Thanks Strongheart. I would try Lyrica but it is not covered here and it is about 2 dollars a capsule. Gabapentin seems to be so cheap that the government gives it to you.
 
Deb

I would hazard a guess that the gabapentin is not responsible for how your feeling but rather the decreasing benzo use. 22 yrs is a long time to take a benzo and a super high dose at that. I took benzos daily for 8 yrs and I am 1yr and a few months off them and I am still not where I would think I should be. Benzo w/d is hell. I started taking gaba for help with dealing with mainly the shakes I would get in my hands, arms, everywhere. It kinda worked but after a few weeks it seemed like about an hour or so after taking it I would get even more shaky so I discontinued taking it.

Here is a real good site for benzo w/d and it helps to know what your dealing with. sounds like benzo w/d to me.
http://www.benzo.org.uk/
 
Yeh I was going to mention the same thing strongheart did as that was the same exact effect I had. *However, it was still very effective in eliminating anxiety and the depression I did get didn't feel much worse than when I was w/out the gaba. So it was a trade for a bit more depression, for a huge relief in anxiety. Worth it for me. May not be worth it for other people. Long story short you don't really know till you try. Just take small "tester" doses at first and I think you should be fine. Its fast acting and fast dissolution so if you do get depressed it won't last more than a day or 2.
 
I've been on gabapentin for about a year and a half.. I went up to almost 3,000mg at one point (I was being prescribed it for anxiety) and it's never done anything for me when I've gone through opiate withdrawl. I honestly don't think it's ever done anything for me ever, but I switched to a new psychiatrist who didn't like how Klonopin my previous one had been prescribing me and so he wanted to try something new. It doesn't do shit for panic attacks (now he prescribes me Ativan) but a lot of people have told me it reduces their general anxiety, like how an antidepressent reduces your depression.. However, I get withdrawls from the fucking gabapentin if I don't take it. Nausea, sweats, etc... I've been slowly tapering off of it but it's taking forever.
 
First.... neither gabapentin OR lyrica should be used for the treatment of anxiety, as per Pfizer.
Both drugs are contraindicated for use when severe anxiety is already present, as the drugs can & does worsen those problem.
It may be just my lowly
lay-opinion...... but it's reckless for a physician to use either to treat anxiety, especially when there are many other proven & dedicated anti-anxiety or tranquilizer/stabilizer drugs for those purposes. Though they act in a similar way and area as classic gaba-affecting drugs, they are NOT the same as those anti-anxiolytic meds.
And at 3k mg of gabapentin, I highly doubt it wouldn't afford at least some relief from RLS and other spasms of acute opiate WD. There is a very good reason that it's used as an adjunct in many rapid detox programs for opiates....... and it's not for the anxiety.
Gabapentin by itself, at normal theraputic doses for nerve pain or seizures, has little-to-no noticeable psychoactive effects. However, it is rarely prescribed by itself..... so you may need to look elsewhere for the cause of your nausea/sweating/WD problems.
 
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For me, gabapentin is the anxiety saviour. I feel GREAT on this drug and I feel this is what I should be feeling normally. The problem is that my doses of gabanpentin increase rapidly and within 2-3 days I have near complete tolerance. So I might start with a 3g (3000mg) dose after a few day break and this will make me feel great for 8 hours. By 24 hours I'll be taking 9g (9000mg) and then in day 2 I might try some 12g and 15g doses and then it seems like it doesn't matter how much gabapentin I take, it doesn't do much. So then I end up doing something else for a few days and then switch back to gabapentin.

Because of the way gabapentin works, I don't see the addiction potential here. For me at least, I believe I cannot get addicted to this drug for the simple reason of near absolute tolerance. After 2 days of gabapentin use, it's pointless for me take more. So I have to stop and then restart. I do not crave gabapentin at any time. I do enjoy the effect once in a while though. It is what has helped me get off the fentanyl (which is EXTREMELY hard) and it is really helpful with PAWS.

If anyone knows of a way to keep gabapentin bioavailability fixed (any CYP inhibitors?) please share.

Also, since I've stopped using fentanyl I feel very weird, very nonmotivated, and crave altered mind states (along with the rationalisations that come with it). I am guessing this is the fentanyl PAWS. I do use fentanyl for 7 days in a month since July. But my dose now is 25% of what I started (i.e., a 75% reduction in two months). I need to search for fentanyl PAWS...
 
^---- just an observation..... if you feel shitty & have anxiety problems sober, any drug that alleviates those feelings to some degree is going to feel like a miracle. And taking that much gabapentin along with an opiate will normally make most people at least a little high & feel a lot better. That beats anxiety down pretty well, in my experience.
 
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Well, you're right. The problem is how to get out of this trap. I only see it happening slowly and not all at once. But the worry is to ensure that I'm not digging myself deeper into the whole. Until I ended up on the opiates, I was sober (from alcohol) for more than a year. I still have not touched alcohol (which I have a problem with) in 2.3 years. But all the opiate use I've had (which I've needed for pain and I've never exceeded the prescription) has taken a toll even though I've tapered off the fentanyl. I now use mj for the pain and the "high" I guess but right now it's not something I desire. What I would like to do is feel normal but I think that's not going to happen overnight coming off of a year on fentanyl.
 
The good thing..... it's not just you. Junk has a way of allowing you to be aware of the awful slide, yet makes it so easy to just not care. But even if you get trapped; there's those that will help if you ask, and lots of both natural & man-made things to get your body back to feeling "normal".
It wasn't hard at all for me to not drink while I was an active junky.... and I honestly don't know how some people can. During that time (4yrs) my body simply couldn't tolerate alcohol; even one shot/beer would give me a headache, and make me feel sick.
Since kicking junk for good, I haven't had the urge to drink at all, and it still makes me ill.... and the few small sips that I have imbibed, came on new years or oct31. Alcohol also seems to intensify the chronic pain from my old war injuries. This is fortunate, because I used to *drink* hard, before opiates..... and had a problem with it.

All in all, gabapentin AND Lyrica helped me a lot in kicking for good..... and I'm thankful that I only need THC, aspirin, NSAIDs, ginger, and excercise now to keep the pain to a dull roar. I'd rather hurt & be alive, than live a numb existence.
 
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Well, is THC part of the "junk" or not? When I use it (as edibles) I generally am pretty useless for a few hours. I can afford to live a life like that for now but at some point things may come to a head. But it hasn't yet, it's just my worry. So far I've been able to keep it all together. But the THC is indeed great for the pain.
 
When I say to "junk", I refer exclusively to opiates.
I use pot on a regular basis and it covers my pain & nausea-relief needs effectively enough, so that I rarely have to take my prescription anti-emetic/nausea meds or extra aspirin/tylenol. It doesn't completely relieve the pain, but manages to dull the roar to a tolerable level.

Eating medibles is better for pain relief, as it does last longer than a vaporization or smoking method of admin..... and is a lot easier on the lungs. In addition, I've noticed that eating hash/medibles reduces the level of triggering inherent in smoking bowls/joints. Eating is much less associated with partying/getting high, imho.

I'd be careful however..... as we know, pot can intensify sensation..... so if you already feel bad, it can make you feel worse. And having a clear head while in acute withdrawal helps a lot, surprisingly.
 
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Interesting. Unlike with alcohol, I've never had a great relationship with mj (meaning it FELT like alcohol helps with anxiety right away, unlike with mj). I've now figured out what it is that I like and don't like, and this is somewhat made worse by edibles, but the first 2-3 hours of the heart beating faster and increased anxiety (seemingly) and paranoia is bothersome and THEN I reach a "blissful" state where I am more or less in control and this can last anywhere from 5-10 hours longer. I've been using mj the last month regularly and in terms of pain, I think it has made me feel better. I'm now far from acute WD but definitely in PAWS or something.

There's something "missing" I feel and I think that has to do with my dependence on the opiates which isn't there anymore provided I have mj (your comments about "junk" is right but I fear right now that includes mj too for me---it really makes me apathetic also, or perhaps it's the opiate dysphoria that is reflected by the mj?). I'm far less functional on mj (at this point, though it is slowly getting better) than on opiates or gapabentin (though they both initially did also weren't good for my productivity, over time I got used to them and these days the opiates don't do much I feel and the gabapentin does make me happy) both of which don't really affect my memory. I love my memory and I think part of my problem with mj is the short term memory issues (though I don't seem to have a problem remembering stuff from BEFORE in my life; just experiences during). I'm writing all this in part because I got so frustrated with my predicament that I had dusted off like 10 year old (sealed) packs of Psychotria viridis (chacruna) and Syrian rue for my first, somewhat mild, DMT experience (see below).

Gabapentin works like alcohol in this sense since I get "energy" from gapabetin (it's like how I did it with alcohol, except that gapapentin is far less destructive AFAIK). This is interesting because I don't think there's a direct overlap of mechanism (but presumably some transcription factors expressed or inhibited similarly I think).

Well, the DMT experience was mild, enlightening but not conclusive. I had these leaves from the DMT and the MAOI plants and I had stayed up all night and I decided to try to make ayahuasca out of it. I took 5g of Syrian rue seeds and made a tea out of that. It didn't taste the best but I drank it all without much problems, no nausea, etc. I think steeped 20g of the chacruna and since this was my first time and I was alone, I decided to be very careful about it and took only 1/3 of the of the DMT mix and not a lot happened for about 30 minutes and then I could feel the standard psychedelic experience (mushroom/LSD style) kick in mildly. At the same time though I didn't have a feeling of being happy that normally happens with psilocybin or LSD and in fact, the DMT mix did make me throw up (but it's only after that did the psychedelic experience start). When I saw that not a lot was happening, I took the remaining bit of the DMT mix and this time the effects were more pronounced, but I never had anything other than a mild trip. I did think introspect a lot and I thought I made some uncomfortable headway, emphasis on uncomfortable, to a point where I went and had a couple of brownies where the anxiety and paranoia seemed much worse UNTIL I had gotten through rapid heartbeat stage and then I felt a blissful peace come over me (while still uncomfortable; a shower and shave helped a LOT). Since I had been up all night, I slept for 3-4 hours, and then I woke up and the mj effect slowly faded away and here I am again feeling "normal" for a while.

I think the DMT experience would've been better had I slept properly and if I had gone "all in" the first time but I wasn't sure how my body would take it. The experience seemed more intense in a way I didn't expect, kept me focussed on trying to figure out what problem I was trying to solve, overthinking, and then when I took the mj it was all like "ah, it's all good." That's the thing I like about mj, is that it makes me live in the moment which I rarely do (I focus on the future). I ordered some more of the chacruna even before I tried this so I'll probably revisit this.

Thanks for the exchange. I appreciate it.

Ixchellian said:
When I say to "junk", I refer exclusively to opiates.
I use pot on a regular basis and it covers my pain & nausea-relief needs effectively enough, so that I rarely have to take my prescription anti-emetic/nausea meds or extra aspirin/tylenol. It doesn't completely relieve the pain, but manages to dull the roar to a tolerable level.

Eating medibles is better for pain relief, as it does last longer than a vaporization or smoking method of admin..... and is a lot easier on the lungs. In addition, I've noticed that eating hash/medibles reduces the level of triggering inherent in smoking bowls/joints. Eating is much less associated with partying/getting high, imho.

I'd be careful however..... as we know, pot can intensify sensation..... so if you already feel bad, it can make you feel worse. And having a clear head while in acute withdrawal helps a lot, surprisingly.
Click to expand...
 
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