Anyone taking gabapentin to ease their ibs

[tiredmum]

Morning all, I have suffered with ibs for over 25 years. Just recently it is out of control. Saw a consultant today who wants me to try gabapentin for six months. Just wondered if any of you have tried and and how you got on.

Thanks in advance

[whiteladder42]

I tried it for a couple months and gained lots of weight (on top of the 4 stone already gained from IBS!) and it didn't do anything for me. It is a drug with a huge amount of side effects so keep your fingers crossed they pass you by! Pre-gabalin was the next drug I tried which is similar. Good luck!

[Anukis]

I take pregabalin 300mg a day for my IBS and overall it has been a improvement. I have taking it for about 2 and a half years now. I havn't had weight gain and didnt have too any side effects while it was being titrated up, it occasionaly made me feel quite giddy. However I don't have side effects now. I still need buscopan and loperamide on occasion. The benefits of pregabalin are that there is quite a scope on the dosage so you have room to experiment to find the best dose for you. Its not addidctive but you do get withdrawal symptoms if you stop it suddenly. I would recommend it but thats just based on my personal experience. Good luck.

[tiredmum]

I am not sure about taking gabapentin at all. I have lupus and aps so already take a huge amount of "nasty" meds. I normally manage my ibs by diet, but in the last 9 months the spasms are actually visible and so painful and I have lost over a stone in weight. I tried to explain to the consultant that is effecting me from my tongue (looks like it has had bites taken out of it) right through my whole intestinal tract.

still not sure what path to follow

[mrsbird2011]

im on gabapentin for a bad neck already but find that if I increase my dose to combat the ibs it seems to make it worse. id stay away from things like that tbh. I was taking solpadol but the codeine in it was making me even more constipated. its a never ending circle. now ive cut all other meds and am sticking to paraetamol through the day and tramadol at night to help me sleep. x

[scubaange]

I ended up on pregabalin for 6 months a year ago. My head felt like it was spinning most of the time and my hand- eye coordination occassionally lacked. However, it reduced my pain significantly. I managed to come off it after 6 months as I couldn't function properly at work. The reduction of pain though allowed me the head space to be able to try alternative therapies to control my IDB-C. I started councelling, tai chi, mediation, FODMAP and probiotics. I now seem to have it pretty much under control. The occassional stress or food slip up and I go backwards a bit but the alternative therapy did me the power of good.

Personally, I'd try to begin with and see if the pain reduceds. It may then allow you to try other alternatives.

Good luck

[surfjen]

Hi there, I am not sure about that drug but funny you mention it because my phyciatrist suggested it to me instead of taking klonopin. I want to come off klonopin because I think it is making my ibs worse. Even my Gastrologist suggested that I should not take it chronically. Klonopin is also suppose to increase gaba in the brain just like gabapentin. In my research I hear that increasing serotonin will help with IBS; however, taking an SSRI drug would not be my first choice. There are natural ways to increase serotonin like taking tryptophan or 5 htp.. but obviously I am not a doctor to prescribe. I don't think I answered your question but things to think about.

[adrixx]

I started taking Lyrica to treat my back pain and immediately noticed my IBS symptoms disappeared as I started taking the pill.

It did make me stupid, my thoughts felt really really shallow and I couldnt do any work in that condition, although it was prosocial, as other say, makes you a bit giddy, drunk like. I get why it has antianxiety effects, I noticed them as well (I normaly have some social anxiety) and also why it makes you feel discoordinated and also it gave me ability to fall asleep easily.

I normally have issues with insomnia, nonstop thoughts not shutting down. Lyrica doesnt make me sleepy, but when I need to I can fall asleep in like 2 minutes if I lay down and close my eyes, which kinda the best way a sleeping aid could work.

Because of the sideeffects I only take it in the evening, after work (75mgs) as the mental effects of being stupid interfere with my work as a programmer. Even so, taking it only before bedtime, my IBS symptoms completely cleared and my bowel movements normalized to once a day, usually in the morning, a nice healthy looking stool. Before Lyrica my average was 2-3 usually burning diarheas a day, some with painful cramps and sweats, a burning anus and painful hemorrhoids.

My coordination is normally quite high and I got used to the side effects and I seem to have even got used to the making me stupid effects while antiIBS effects still persist at the same dosage.

For anyone considering this, my IBS seems to flare up as a reaction to coldness, both outside coldness and often if I gulp a lot of cold liquid, especially on an empty stomach. Worst diarheas would usually occur at night if I accidentaly uncover my back during sleep, my back gets cold and eventually I wake up 4am in excrutiating pain, cramps, sweats and just want to die on the toilet to make it stop. It feels like my bowels enter into some kind of "purge everything" mode and them some. If theres nothing in my bowels Ill be pooping stomach acid with cramps and gas and this burns badly. Walking barefoot or in socks on cold flooring works to cause a flare up similarly.

I have never figured out that any food is related my IBS. I eat everything in any order and I never noticed it caused my IBS to flare up. Sure, some foods generate a lot of gas in me, and this still happens with Lyrica but it doesnt hurt or cause distress, nothing remotely similar to what being cold can do to me.

Before Lyrica, as soon as I exit my apartment at winter time-cold weather I can almost immediately feel my bowels cramp up and start to cause pain and eventually painful bowel movements and diarrhea. And exactly that is completely removed by Lyrica.

Lyrica didnt do anything for my back pain, but what it did for my IBS is simply amazing and was completely unexpected. On top of that it also reduces my insomnia issues very well. Mind you, other insomnia meds dont work on me, all sleeping pills exacerbate my restless leg syndrome and so make sleep completely impossible. Even the melatonin based AD that causes heavy sleepiness and is to be taken before bedtime causes severe RLS for me and no sleep. Only benzos (or opiates) help me sleep and between getting addicted to benzos, opiates or Lyrica, I think Ill take my chances with Lyrica. Benzos or opiates dont help my IBS and I havent heard anyone NOT having the worst withdrawals from them, while people have gotten off Lyrica withdrawal free, not all but some.

Anyway, I think there are different causes of IBS, I feel that mine is caused by an anomalous nervous system overreacting to some circumstances and has nothing to do with the food that I eat and so Lyrica completely rescues it. The fact that my nervous system seems to be the root cause may probably play a role in Lyrica being effective for me, so consider that.

P.S. Ive just visited London as a tourist and I got IBS the first day walking around all day in cold weather (and converse sneakers, lol), the whole day was lost to me finding toilets. So the next day, since I dont have to work I took on lyrica in the morning. No IBS any more, strawling around london feeling the freedom of even being able to sit on a cold bench and eat a hot dog without rushing to the toilet in 5 mins!