Neurontin

I worked in a hospital that used Neurontin by the bucketfull and have been for many years skeptical. My mother has post-herpatic neuralgia from ocular shingles and thinks it helps "a little". I am still not sold on its effectivness and suspet a placebo effect.When I was doing geriatric nursing I had many patients who could not tolerate it.The jury is still out as far as I am concerned..

Both personally and professionally (I'm a NP) I find it works great. No "hang over" effect the next morning and I can safely prescribe up to 2400 mg TID without any side effects.

It depends on the cause of the pain.......Neurontin would not be my drug of choice for osteoarthritis/osteoporosis, for example, but if the pain is related to a condition of the nervous system, e.g. peripheral neuropathy, the drug can be a godsend. When I was a LTC care manager, one of my residents had suffered from foot pain that woke her several times a night for YEARS; and nothing that had been tried before, including OxyContin, had worked. I got her MD to OK a trial of Neurontin, and by gosh, within a week she was better. It didn't 'fix' the problem, but it made it possible for her to sleep at night and not be wakened by this horrible foot pain.

So yes, I'm a believer in Neurontin, but again, I'd have to know where the pain is coming from before I'd recommend it.

I have been using it myself for about 4 years now. 300mg tid for peripheral neuropathy. it worked good for 3 1/2 years, the last 6 months it takes up to 1 hour for the effect to start and only lasts about 4 hours. I think I need an increase in the dose or something new.

I was on Neurontin for neuropathy secondary to a back injury and subsequant surgery. Prior to surgery I found no relief of symptoms from the Neurontin. Post -Op I was restarted on it and was up to 600 mgm TID. I still had pain and found that I was having trouble with finding words and writing. I did not feel sedated. I decided to go off the Neurotin. I still have pain, but for some reason it does not seem as bad as before. I now realize that I was more sedated than I thought. When I do take the neurotin now I can definately feel the effects and do get some relief.

I was started on Neurontin for problems with chemo induced neuropathy (from Taxol) and I only take 100 mg at bedtime. Yes, it does help and surprisingly, has helped with the hot flashes from the Tamoxifen too. I still deal with some neuropathy - but at least I'm able to sleep at night and that makes all the difference.

Our physicians often order Neurotin for phantom pain and it seems to work fairly well. It defintely causes sedation intially, but as the patient continues the therapy, this seems to decrease.

My sister had severe neck and shoulder pain with headaches. A neurologist tried neurontin and she claimed it to be a miracle drug that stopped her discomfort. Good success there.

Friend uses 800 TID for DM neuropathy. Swears by it, as long as he gets a certain generic gabapentin. Another brand of the generic doesn't help, he says. Pharmacy works with him to make sure he gets the generic that helps.