Just popped over from my usual site on the pain concern forum. Hope to get an answer from you nice people
I have heard that a daily dose, around 5 o'clock, of 600mgd of Gabapentin can help with RSL.
Having tried David on Gab with not so good results for pain I am wary of using it again.
Any ideas gratefully received
Pat x
Hi Paton, Gabapentin is used for RLS and its the usual thing, what might work for one doesnt for another.. Only trying it will you know. 600 is fairly low dosage, it might be enough to work. I tried 600mg years ago now, and it wasnt enough to help my RLS, and as it made me soooo sleepy the next day, after a month i gave up. But this is just my experience of taking it Others i am sure will have a different story.
Thanks Ellis. Sounds the same old Gabapentin story. Works for some and not others. David had it for other pains and just zombified him. Hoped the low Sort of dose might reduce at least one of his pains.
Oh well.
x
I agree with Elisse when she says 600 mgs is a fairly low dosage. now they say 1500 mgs. Recent studies suggest that the higher you go on the Gabapentin, the less our bodies absorb. We can only absorb so much. it is different with dosing for epilepsy. Also, I found that gabapentin did nothing for my nerve pain or my RLS, but treating RLS is all trial and error.
Thank you Nightdancer. It is as I thought and David has been down the bumpy road of Gabapentin as pain relief. No way will that happen ever again.
Gosh yes the dose for Epilepsy is enormous. Wonder how they cope?
Pat x
I suffered from chronic insomnia for over two years before polysomnography showed that RLS was the most probable cause. I now take 600 mg gabapentin and 50 mg tramadol about two hours before bed and sleep pretty well. However, I think that the tramadol makes the biggest contribution to suppressing the restlessness.
Incidentally, the large doses prescribed for epilepsy are not taken as a single dose, but spread over the day. I was told by my GP that 900mg is the largest single dose.
Three hundred mg Gabapentin at bedtime for two years provided the first 5 continuous hours of sleep a night in many years. But during that time the side effect turned out to be osteoporosis! Google the two words. I stopped all medicine and started a bone building program. A Relaxis Pad and magnesium supplements, exercise, and careful diet help me get about 5 hours of sleep nightly. All benzos, antiseizure, and many other medicines have a high risk of rapid bone loss. I will not use them again.
I have had RLS all my life but it really kicked in in my 40ss. I am 75 now.
I think I have tried most of the RLS meds on the market.
A word of caution about Praimpexole. It was causing my heart to have a very high number ( over 324) a minute of premature beats. This was monitored by medical procedures, so it is a very accurate accounting.
I was taking .125 MG X 3 & .25 MG X 1.
I cut back with some serious withdrawal but by pacing my cut back I got down to .125 MG X 2. Just checked my premature beats count recently and it is down to 81 a minute. In the interim I began using the Gabapintin 300 MG X 2 but couldn't get the timing of dosages right as I still had bouts with RLS.
Switched to using a combination of Horizant 600 MG X 1 in combination with Hydrocodon- acetaminophen 15 MG and added Clonazapam .5 MG all with the reduced Praimpexole. I would like to totally reduce the Praimpexole to zero but with out it, the RLS comes back.
This is a lot of meds to take but its better than the RLS.
This combination of meds seems to work for now.
RLS is a real curse and I pray that some smart Dr will come up with a true cure.
Amen and AMEN!!!! I've been telling my dh that for years!!! I hate to wish it on anyone, but if a lot more doctors were to suffer from it, there might be a cure a lot sooner. And more people would also take us seriously. I have had it since the age of 18, with my first pregnancy, and the doctor I told about it told me it was all in my head and to go home. This was after 15 minutes of him asking me what it felt like and me being unable to adequetly describe it. I was in tears and never told another soul until in my 40's when I read it in a Readers Digest and knew I wasn't alone. I am in my 60's now and the only relief I have is Tramadol. Don't know how I would make it without them.
Paton,
Gabapentin in that small a dose is useless for RLS. I have the worse case the specialist has eve seen of total restless body and legs.
I Take 1 300mg capsule at 11 am, 1 at two pm 2 at 5 pm and 2 at 9 pm along with 3 , 2 mg ropinirole time released tabs. one at 11 am one at 6 pm and one at 9 pm.
This keeps me calm and doesn't hurt me in those large doses.
My neurologist who specializes in RLS says you can overdose on gabapentin and all you'd do is go to sleep for a few hours and wake up ok and he is a very conservative person.
GOOD LUCK,
Windwalker
Thanks to evryone who replies. Much appreciated.
Think you hav confirmed what I already know. David and Gabapentin are not compatible een in low doses. Like chronic pain it works for some but not many.
Pat x
i take 1500mg -2000mg when i feel restless LIMB SYNDROME coming on at night, small amounts just wont do it. I say LIMB because i get it arms and legs. The side affects of GABA on me are horrendous but "hey!!" so is RLS.
Try taking iron tablets at a medium dose, i do not get RLS as much as before but past two nights i have. But i have been free of it for a short while. I had RLS as a punishment from God! must have been Stalin in a past life!!! Try medium doses of trace elements. i had it the a long period of time and BAD, as i said Gabapentin works 95% of the time but high doses. And take it all at once and wait 1/2-3/4 hour. Always within the hour and RLS has gone, but i am a liability next day and it destroys my short term memory completely!!!! or the other solution is to get up an d walk the fields or roads at silly A.M. AND I WOULD WISH RLS ON MY WORST ENEMIES!!
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