What If The Prescribed Amount Is Not Working
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I am prescribed gabapentin 300mg capsule and 400mg capsule. I'm supposed to take two 300mg twice a day for 7 days. Then one 400mg twice a day for however long. Today I've taken three 300mg and one 400mg and its not helping. Am I taking to much? Will this hurt me or possibly overdose me? please help.

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15

Hi okay so I don't really know where else to ask this question so I guess I'll just toss it out here and see if anyone sees it and knows an answer. So I'm only 19. I've been on all the depression/anxiety/mood stabilizer/ADD/ and sleep medicine you could possibly imagine. My sleep seemed under control for a couple months so I quit the drugs for insomnia. I started college this year and insomnia has creeped back up..... HARD. My psychiatrist now started me on Gabapentin. 300 mg pills twice before bed. Didn't work. I kept raising it by 300 mg at a time every night. I'm not up to 1800 mg and literally nothing is happening. I'm not even having that "high" or "loopy" feeling people talk about. Does anyone know why it isn't working? Should I try more or is it just not working with my body? HELP I NEED TO SLEEP

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14

No 3600mg is usually the max-and as stated below it can take up to a month to work-if it does not work, tell your doctor and he can prescribe another drug to try

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13

Don't detox yourself-do it under your Dcotor

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12

I have been on chemo due to lung cancer. I was doing okay and then started having pins and needle pains in my feet and fingertips. It progressively got worse and finally could not sleep at night and walking was difficult. My dr prescribed gabapentin 300MG. It took a while but the pain eased up (did not go away) where it was tolerable to deal with. I am now finished with chemo and would like to get off of gabapentin. However, I can find no answer as to how do I get off this med without going through withdrawal symtoms. Do I cut back to 2 tablets a day (200MG) for a week and continue to decrease from there, using a week at a time as a withdrawal until I am through with it. Since my pain was related to chemo and my chemo is now done (my tumor shrunk) I would like to discontinue this medicine.

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11

Hi, Jack I read that docs can take Gabapentin up to 3600mg a day max-And Vernon is right that it is not for ALL pain. It is used off label for certain types of nerve pain. It does not work for everyone though. azluc, as far as prescribing it for RLS ( did you ask the doc why ? ) I find it unusual and would like to know why...allison, being on prednizone for 12 yrs WOW ! I'm glad your pinching pain is better. As for the side affects of gabapentin, well everyone is different and some will go away the longer you take the med. It also depends on the others meds you take. With all that said I started Gabapentin 4 1/2 yrs ago-started with 100mg week and almost as soon as I started I called the doc and asked her to raise my dosage to another 100mg. Now I take 1500 mg day and sometimes it still exhausts me but it works for me and thats what counts. It does take 2-3 weeks to work well. I take this and many other meds for complex regional pain syndrome, siatica,neck nerve pain. I would give up my Vicoden 1st before my gabapentin. It has worked for me. Good luck everyone:)

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10

Mri show i have myelopathy , opll and advance degenerative changes .i am useing gabapentin 1200 mg.i have start 9 manths ago with 100 ,200,300 and now 400mg 3 times a day .i am still haveing pain and several side effects .i feel the gabapentin is not helping . would I need surgery .

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9

I was just given a prescription for gabapentin 300mg 90 minutes before bedtime. Can increase 300mg every night to a max of 1200. This increase is weekly. I have symptoms of restless leg syndrome but my problem is much more than RLS. I have heavy legs and problems with balance. I was on Requip with some help to the symptoms but developed compulsive gambling problem. Is anyone else in a similar situation or have any advice for me as to what to expect. I have had this problem for over 5 years. It started with just kinda stubbing your toe as I walked and progressed to turing to walk a certain direction and my upper body moved but my legs did not follow. Things like stepping up on a curb became something to think about and prepare for before I attempted it. My legs and ankles tire easily. The nuerologist just tells me there are some things we do not know and this is one of them? I have had MRI from head to toe and no results. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

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8

I have poly-myalgia rheumatica and have been on prednizone for 12 years. The pred was very effective but I am having surgery soon and cannot take the pred. I am waaaaaaaaaaay crippled up and in serious pain. Just started the gabapentin, taking 900 a day, this is second week. Not much relief altho' I don't have that pinching pain anymore. Any body else deal with this?

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7

I have been taking Gabapentin for over a month now, and I feel bad all the time. I'm very tired some times confused and have crazy mood swings. Always feeling like i'm in slow motion. The reason for taking this med. is for nerve pain in my leg. I have been getting chest pain and a heavyness in my chest. And have had a full work up and my heart is perfect. At this point i am at a loss for my pain. It is very hard to keep taking this med tho it is helping with my leg pain, the other side affects are not easy to live with.

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6

Well, it is really hard to say, any taper and switch over like this has to be tailored to the individual.

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5

I have taken Tegretol for quite a while, now the dr has advised me to try gabapentin. I was taking 2 200mg tegretol 3x a day, slowly reducing this 1 in the am and 1 in the pm, plus gabapentin 300mg, inially 1 in am and 1 in pm. And last few days at lunchtime as well. How much longer before I should stop the tegretol altogether, and then what should my dosage of gabapentin be? The drs dont seem to be much help, trial and error! Has anyone had this experience of both medications and how have they switched over. Needless to say, I have not had that much relief as yet.

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4

Yes, but it is still not going to work instantly like a pain med, since that is not what it is, nor what it is intended for, you will not get any results from this until you have been using for at least 2 weeks or more, then you can get a dosage adjustment if needed.

It also does not work for everyone, so if you don't have pain caused from certain types of nerve pain, it won't do anything for you.

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3

So my doctor can increase the Gabapentin dosage several strengths to obtain the effective level?

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2

Sorry I meant distinct advantage, sorry about the typo.

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1

Nope. One distance advantage of Gabapentin is you can take very high doses, some people take thousands of mgs in a day, and you almost never reach an OD effect.

However, if you are thinking this is a pain pill or something that should give you some results or effects right away soon after you take it, you are misinformed. This is actually a drug that was approved for us to prevent epilepsy seizures and was shown to help with some types of nerve pain, so it is not a pain killer and it only works on certain types of pain.

You have to be taking these for several weeks before you begin to see any results though, so it doesn't matter how much you took today, since it isn't a pain med and doesn't work like one, you are not going to start feeling any results yet.

So you should stick with dosing schedule you were given and then in a few weeks you will be ablet o evaluate whether or not it is helping.

However, if you were taking this for a pain condition, and you thought you would have immediate help, it is not going to happen and you need to talk to your doctor.

That is one of the drawbacks of this med, it takes awhile to work and reach its full effect in your body, and it doesn't work for all forms of pain.

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