Update and ???s about neurontin

[alongfortheride]

Since I last posted in March difficult child had 2 more attempted suicides and has been hospitalized since the last. Medications have been changed and he is settling in nicely. In fact he is due to come home from the stepdown facility tomorrow and being a IOP program. At one point he was having 19 panic attacks a day but they were attributed to medication side effects. He tells me that the attacks are much less severe/frequent now and he has really worked on how to get through them.

He has also been educated in BiPolar (BP) and how to recognize symptoms. He was in a "mixed episode" which was a new one for him but explains so much.

Due to the fact that he used the ativan in a attempt he now takes neurontin for anxiety. Has anyone ever heard to this? I thought is was just a nerve pain medication.

In any case I am actually looking forward to having him home...first time I've had such an extended break from him.

 

[AnnieO]

husband takes neurontin (the gabapentin) for nerve pain issues, and it has a handy dandy little side effect of reducing his panic attacks. These are of course induced by the kids' BM's behavior - so now instead of the hyperventilating, sick-to-nausea, fight-or-flight he's able to keep it together when she pulls more carp.

It's also an anti-seizure medication because it blocks the nerve receptors - which is why it works for pain and for anxiety. I think.

Does this help any?

 

[alongfortheride]

Yes, thanks. I never heard of it being used in such a way.

 

[DammitJanet]

I used to take neurontin. In fact, it was the first mood stabilizer they ever tried me on. I used to call it my 6 shots of tequila medication because when I started it or increased my dose I felt like I had six shots of tequila...lol. In other words, I felt tipsy. It didnt do a whole lot of good for me as far as a mood stabilizer and I changed to topamax after a few months.

I tried it again last fall for nerve pain and it did help me for that...some. But I got all messed up with my medications when I went in the hospital and I somehow lost that medication and I never went back on it.