Rls and Facial twitching

[Artistickiwi]

I've had RLS for about 3 years and take gabapentin 1200mg a day.

I have realised that muscles in my face twitch or spasm though I am unaware they do this (cant feel it happening) only realise due to taking video for social media. The muscles are the ones just above the mouth on both sides.

On talking to my husband about it he said he had noticed and sometimes its quite bad. Of course I am now quite self conscious.

Before I talk to the doctor has anyone else experienced this and do you think its related to RLS or something else entirely?

[Caravan24]

I had the same issue and it's a known side effect of gabapentin. Mine stopped when I weaned off gabapentin

[Artistickiwi in reply to Caravan24]

What do you take instead?

[Caravan24 in reply to Artistickiwi]

I decided to go off gabapentin and instead manage with 10mg baclofen and over the counter co codamol and zopliclone if really bad. Not perfect but better than the DA drugs that caused augmentation

[SueJohnson]

You might want to try switching to pregabalin. Although it is basically the same drug except you don't need to divide the doses, and the side effects are basically the same, some people find that the side effects that bother them on one don't bother them on the other. Divide the gabapentin amount by 6 to get the correct dose.

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

So I have the pregabalin, do I need to come of gabapentin first or can I can go straight to pregabalin?

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

You can switch directly. As I mentioned divide the gabapentin dose by 6 so in your case that would be 200 mg pregabalin.

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks Sue will have to chat to the Dr at some point as she's only given 150mg a day.

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

Don't switch to just 150 mg as you will likely have withdrawal effects, although you could try it being aware that might happen.

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

I had 75mg in the morning and 75mg at night yesterday seemed ok

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

That's good. Did you have the same side effects you had on gabapentin?

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

Haven't noticed any yet only been a few days. But don't feel like I really had any with gabapentin only came off because of the facial twitching

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

It was the facial twitching I meant. Is that gone?

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

I'll have to ask hubby if he's noticed as I don't feel it. Though I would have thought it was too soon to know. Since I only started pregabalin Friday night (it's Monday here)

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

You should know by now unless you didn't have the facial twitching when you were on the equivalent of gabapentin which would have been 900 mg.

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

Ok will ask hubby to check it out later probably at dinner

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

Just curious - what country do you live in that it is now Monday?

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

New Zealand

[SueJohnson in reply to Artistickiwi]

You don't need pregabalin other than at night because one only has RLS at night. Doctors will prescribe it that way because it used to be only prescribed for neuropathy. Just take all of it 1 to 2 hours before bedtime.

[Artistickiwi in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks appreciate it 😊

[Eryl]

Yes, it is related to RLS, I had it before I eliminated my RLS by avoiding inflammatory foods like refined seed oils and refined carbs.

[Jerry57]

Yes, it happened to me several years ago, but I could feel it. I thought it was due to stress and lack of sleep from RLS and/or a side effect of tramadol. I was not taking gabapentin. My Dr had no idea what could cause it. Thankfully it went away.

[Guitarpickin]

When my symptoms flair I often have facial twitching. Getting treatment helped and now it’s very rare and only a lip or eyelid. But before I got on medication (gabapentin), watched what I ate, and stretched daily, I had whole body twitching-so for me it definitely felt related to whatever was aggravating the RLS/PLMD.

[Artistickiwi]

So I've been given pregabalin and told to wean off gabapentin before starting it. Is that what others have done?