Neurontin (gabapentin) for anxiety

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I've read that neurontin/gabapentin is sometimes used off label for anxiety.

I'd like to know, do/did you take neurontin for anxiety, and if so how did it work out for you?

Usually they first try the standard medication, before they try something off label.

Neurontin is probably not really probed to tread anxiety.
So I would first try the standart mediaction and if there nothing works and the symptoms are severe there can still be tryed something off label.

And by the way:

For me it does help with anxiety to a point . Yes it can cause suicidal tendencies to be amplified in the depressed, especially if you stop taking it suddenly. One other less known side effect is weight gain for some. Be careful when first taking it it can mess with coordination for a few days.

I took it for nerve pain and mood swings... not anxiety. It worked for me for a little while, then I became violent and verbally aggressive.

the anxiety goes but is more often than not replaced by spaceyness.

The doc in rehab put some of us on it and it worked somewhat for anxiety

I'm taking Neurontin for OCD but I'm also taking Buspar for anxiety. I was taking Buspar 1st & it was helping my anxiety but I had some bad OCD problems. I had been on lots of psych meds in the past for different things & they had never really helped my anxiety or OCD & some had bad side-effects. I wanted to avoid antidepressants & antipsychotics because of my bad experiences & me not having those other problems they treat. I got my GP to prescribe Neurontin because it's occasionally used to treat Essential Tremors which I have; it's not helping me with that but it isn't making it any worse. It's helping my OCD a lot thou & the combination with Buspar is helping my anxiety more than Buspar was by itself. I still have anxiety & OCD but they are a lot better than they were before those two meds. I'm taking lower doses of each thou; 400mg of Neurontin 3x a day & 10mg of Buspar twice a day. The main side-effects I noticed after adding Neurontin is that I zone out & feel kind of out of it more but I did that before even when I wasn't on meds & drugs.com interaction checker says the combo with Buspar can increase effects of Central Nervous System Depression. I haven't noticed any other problems with Neurontin unless I were to skip a dose(go over half the day without taking it) or if I forgot I took it & take it again shortly after. I had noticed some problems when I started it so I would suggest starting on a low dose & gradually increasing like take 100mg of it 3x a day for a week or so & then switch to the 300mg for another week or so & then the 400mg if needed & possibly the 600 after that; I thought about increasing to that dose but I have a lot of improvement already & I'm not sure if the extra benefit I may get from that would be wroth the the increase of the CNS depression I may get.

BTW I had a bad depression in the past that didn't get better till I quit the psych meds. I haven't had any of the depression issues or other mental side-effects other than that zoning out stuff on Neurontin that I had when I was taking SSRIs & other antidepressants. My brain chemistry is probably a lot weirder than most thou

Old post but I respond anyway. I originally went to a doctor due to my skin burning like a sunburn wherever clothes touched me. Freaking out when my collarbone or armpits touched anything. For days at a time, randomly starts & stops mostly on my arms and head.
The first dose made me feel drunk, and seqencal doses had no side effects. But when I stopped taking everyday the first one always made me drunk. The special effect was that my wife said that I was way less irritable when interrupted, attentive (with my kids) and notably pleasant.(Didn't realize it was an issue she had learned to live with). It is a magic drug. I am out and go to the Dr this week for more. Thank you.Gabapenton

another undesirable side effect of gabapentin/Neurontin, is it shuts off the electricity to the hydraulic pumps.

I took gabapentin for nerve pain, but I also have depression and anxiety anyway.

Gabapentin made me incredibly depressed and suicidal. I was really finding it hard to cope. I didn't understand why I felt so bad. I was taking it for 2 months so the side effects should have gone by then really.

I ended up looking up side effects from gabapentin withdrawal and the safety of cold turkey withdrawal, as I wanted to stop it anyway as it was making me feel incredibly drugged even at a low dose of 100mg 3 x a day. I came across just side effects of the medication generally and suicide and depression was a huge one listed. It made sense. I stopped cold turkey and didn't really have any side effects from going cold turkey, and I feel better now.

I still have depression, anxiety etc. but it's not as bad as whilst I was on gabapentin.

I still have the nerve pain, but I'll figure that out myself with my doctor.

I was prescribed it for severe spinal pain, another off label use. It was remarkably effective at first - then I developed a rare but known dangerous side effect of a swollen tongue. The doctor didn't know of this side effect, but a specialist did (thank goodness).

I LOVE that s**t... it works, together with my Abilify and Celexa and Invega and sometimes Ativan and sometimes clonazepam. Gabapentin gives me an anxiety-free day for 12 hours and I'm giddy! I just hope it doesn't make me gain weight; I'm fat enough!

OLD trans guy. 54. Diagnosed autism by neuro psyche, family ect. Psychiatrist got an itch to try neurontin over ativan. No reason except she said ativan was dangerous 1 mg usually 1-2 times a month and could interact. I don't use drugs or drink. I rarely took anything other than anti depressants but sometimes needed something else... so gabapentin the new autistic anxiety solution. She said it was safer. Why was I remaking a noose over and over for the next few days? I suck at knots but got pretty good. Why couldn't I keep my balance the next day? Cooridnation was so bad I almost fell backwards into the bathtub? Thoughts are disturbing...but she was Right, it does help anxiety and it works fast! The first couple of hours are a real relief...until. I can be morose but I looked at the side effects. Uh oh. She stuck me in DBT as the next solution with gabapentin. Now there is a bunch of winners just like the two girlfriends I had that sucked the life out of me. Have idiot doctors recognized yet the dope they give us doesn't work if we die 20 years earlier than normal people? oh well. Good luck out there to everyone.

Haven't noticed anything when it comes to anxiety. It doesn't make me "feel" any different on or off it.

I take it for trigeminal neuralgia and a severed median nerve. It can knock the pain off the former from 10/10 to around 7-8/10. The latter from around 5/10 to about 3/10.