Gabapentin

[LK3]

300-600mg at night is good for sleep? Does it knock you out? Feel loopy in the AM?

gabapenten and pregabalin are a bit different but no real dopey feel the next day. its not at all like a benzo in feel or effect. it doesnt knock you out either. you could take a high dose and do stuff, thats what people call the rec aspect. its kinda calming but no real interesting head change. i took it when i needed to behave.

 

[alfresco]

gabapenten and pregabalin are a bit different but no real dopey feel the next day. its not at all like a benzo in feel or effect. it doesnt knock you out either. you could take a high dose and do stuff, thats what people call the rec aspect. its kinda calming but no real interesting head change. i took it when i needed to behave.

It’s also used as a anticonvulsant, think alcohol withdrawal.

 

[j4ever]

I was on 900mg 3X per day. Not loopy, did not effect sleep or anything else.

If on that dosage, like mentioned above, and correctly so, please taper
of sloooowly, work with your doc on this.

900 damn, not gaba, but i was recently taking pregabalin at 150mg ed, was not to bad but i was a little foggy on that dose maybe like in a mild daze sometimes, doc said to increase to 225mg ed, the first day i started having a headache, on day 3 it felt like a nail being driven thru the side of my head then i started vomiting, i just stopped taking it all together, i was on it about 2 weeks i think.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

I've kept my prescription for gabapentin and said no to Lyrica. I don't take it often but when I have some sciatica or neck pain, it really works like a champ compared to ibuprofen. But if you do use it regularly, a friend with MS told me he felt horrible for days stopping it so I definitely suggest weening off. It does give me some drowsiness so best at bedtime but otherwise nothing else. But I only take 1 200mg capsule prn for pain.

 

[juggy38]

"The Journal of Neuroscience, Roberto et al. (2008) investigated the ability of gabapentin to modulate GABA transmission in the central amygdala (CeA), a brain region known to be implicated in the modulation of emotionality and drug intake (Koob, 2003)."

"Roberto et al. (2003) have previously reported that acute ethanol application to rat brain slices increases GABAergic transmission in the CeA, at both presynaptic and postsynaptic sites."

"However, ethanol and gabapentin appeared to exert their effects via separate mechanisms: the increased GABA transmission evoked by gabapentin was blocked by application of a GABAB antagonist, and coapplication of gabapentin and ethanol led to an additive (rather than competitive) effect on GABA transmission"

"Behaviorally, Roberto et al. (2008) clearly demonstrated the usefulness of gabapentin in the treatment of acute ethanol withdrawal using animal models of ethanol consumption and anxiety. Rats continuously exposed to ethanol (as vapor or as a liquid diet) predictably increased ethanol self-administration during acute withdrawal compared with nondependent rats [Roberto et al. (2008), their Fig. 5A (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/28/22/5762/F5)]. Significantly, this effect was normalized through application of gabapentin systemically or directly into the CeA. In addition, systemic gabapentin dose-dependently blocked the anxiogenic-like effect elicited by ethanol withdrawal"

"First, the link between GABA transmission in the CeA and anxiety in this study is quite puzzling. For example, in ethanol-dependent rats, acute ethanol increased GABA transmission, whereas gabapentin decreased GABA transmission, yet behaviorally, the two drugs displayed almost identical effects on anxiety (i.e., an anxiety-relieving effect). A similar dichotomy exists in nondependent rats: both gabapentin and ethanol increased GABA release to a similar extent, yet ethanol reduced anxiety after acute administration in naive rats (Da Silva et al., 2005), whereas acute gabapentin has no discernable effect on anxiety. If anxiety is mediated through GABA transmission in the CeA, we would have expected gabapentin and ethanol to have similar effects on this behavior. Discrepant cellular and behavioral results may be attributable to differences in the selectivity/affinity that different treatments may have on subpopulations of GABA neurons (as discussed by the authors), but may also highlight a limitation in linking specific cellular and behavioral effects. It should also be noted here that whereas the effects of gabapentin on GABAergic transmission were studied in rats chronically exposed to ethanol, the effects on anxiety-related behavior were evaluated in naive rats injected with a single high dose of ethanol. Withdrawal symptoms observed in dependent rats and in rats acutely injected with ethanol may differ markedly in terms of cellular mechanisms."


Anxious to Drink: Gabapentin Normalizes GABAergic Transmission in the Central Amygdala and Reduces Symptoms of Ethanol Dependence
Kelly J. Clemens, Leandro F. Vendruscolo
Journal of Neuroscience 10 September 2008, 28 (37) 9087-9089; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2928-08.2008