AMN and spasms

[AMNBrazil]

Dear AMN friends,

I would like to share a symptom I use to have for quite some time but it is growing, spasms on my legs.

Usually I have spams when I am extremely tired, laying or sitting; and almost every night when I go to bed.

But now, I am starting to face extremely hard and visual episodes of spams on my legs. besides the pain, it is not a confortable situation that impacts balance and walking as well.

This is familiar to any of you? Do you take any medicine or alternative approach to reduce the spams?

Kind regards

Rodrigo C A Lima

Brazil

[monkeybus]

Hello there. I suffer from shocking spasms. Gabapentin and Lyrica are 100% guaranteed to stop them.

[AMNBrazil in reply to monkeybus]

Thanks for your attention and tips!

[Magnolia209 in reply to monkeybus]

Hey there! I’m a carrier that has a lot of neuropathy pain. Just saw my neurologist as I’ve been on Gabapentin for close to 10 years. I’ve been up to 1800 mags. and then after reading some comments stating it’s not good for the brain I weaned myself off. But I had started back on and my neurologist said 1800 mgs, isn’t much and could go up to 3600 mgs. Whoa! What do you think???

[AMNBrazil in reply to Magnolia209]

Dear Magnolia,

Great to recieve your message.

I will take this information to my neurologist with the aim to define my approach.

Kind regards

Rodrigo

[monkeybus in reply to Magnolia209]

I have taken that kind of dose. Gabapentin, the stoned effects don't last. A shame, as I really enjoy it. Lyrica is a different animal. Guaranteed to completely lobotomise me.

Personally, I take whatever dase of Gabapentin does the job. One thing I learnt from one of my stays in hospital, small doses of Gabapentin, spaced out, like 300mg every hour, on the hour is far more effective than larger, irregular doses. You can really cut down on your total daily intake that way.

I have 300mg pills, I generally now chop them in half and from 6pm I take half a pill (150mg) every hour. By midnight, I have done 900mg, and my legs are in great shape. Not a spasm in sight.

Regarding any brain damage, where is the evidence is the thing? Cannot trust anything you read on the Internet. I have read plenty that Lyrica is more addictive than Heroin, which is complete and utter rubbish. Not too many girls pimping themselves out for their regular Lyrica fix. Though, as I have said before, these Gaba drugs can be monsters. Benzo's being the biggest culprits.

You can only trust peer reviewed scientific papers (and anecdotal evidence like on this site).

But, for me, it has to be pubmed

google.com/search?q=pubmed+...

And Google Scholar

scholar.google.co.jp/schola...

No reports of brain damage there, which is lucky as it is the only drug that legally stops my spasms.

Gabapentin? I am not worried. Lyrica, I am phasing it out.

[Magnolia209 in reply to monkeybus]

Thanks MB, onward and upward with Gabapentin it is! Mine are capsules though so no cutting those in half. Have to think about that one.

[COwithAMN Administrator AMN EASIER Volunteer]

In my experience, spasms do come on worse when you go to bed.

It may be counterintuitive but I also seemed to find that leg exercise had the effect of reducing spasms later on at night. I went to the gym three days a week and this included some hard biking for 8 or 9 minutes. Not sure I can explqin it, but don't think I was imagining it.

[Tim76]

I have spasms as well and find that 600mg of gabapentin 3x per day does the trick. Rarely I have to add 10mg of baclofen at bedtime.

[SongStream]

Are we referring to involuntary muscle spasms (like when your foot kicks which often happens to me at night) or cramp like? If it's involuntary spasms, I now take generic Keppra after previous drugs lost its efficacy.