Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

[wanttobesober]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Study on Gabapentin with Naltrexone and AL

Gabapentin May Help Treat Alcohol Dependence

Medscape: Medscape Access

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[Murphyx]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Gabapentin ordered. Now I just have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for delivery

[Bruunhilde]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Update: For the record, I am also taking 25mg baclofen a day and 300-600mg gabapentin. I have been on the 20-25mg bac for months. The only difference to my being able to stop drinking was the adding of the gabapentin, and perhaps a personal revelation about my life.

Yesterday I caved and bought a bottle of wine. I believe it was because I was bored, and maybe because I forgot to take bac in the late afternoon. I took it at bedtime to help me sleep, though. The gabapentin alone did not help me avoid the AL enough to get me through. I was in the store and bought one bottle of chardonnay. I drank three glasses and felt I was white knuckling to not drink the rest.

However, the good news is I did NOT drink the rest and had no hangover. I wanted my experiences on record for this thread since there are people with depression and anxiety and AL abuse and the gabapentin is helping on all counts. But it's not a long term cure for me, it seems.

If I had been only on bac, my bottle of wine would have been gone based on my past six months on bac at this and higher levels so the gabapentin is working. AND I would have gone out for more or bought more to begin with. My mood is still elevated, and I feel great. I'm now exercising.

Wanttobe, let us all know how it goes. Murph, I know I can count on you. Nice tatoo, by the way. How in the heck did you do that? You spend more time on your avi than Neva.

[Murphyx]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

That's damn good news Bruun. Very promising results. When I get the chance tomorrow morning, I'm going to pop over to your thread and catch up on what's been happening to you over the last few weeks. I don't really like the blog-threads but I'll make an exception this once.

Bruunhilde;1148663 wrote: Nice tatoo, by the way. How in the heck did you do that?

Simple, I just shaved my arse, put on my weekend knickers, popped over to the tattoo parlour and asked the huge biker guy to tattoo something pretty for me.

[Bruunhilde]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

If that's YOUR weekend getup, what does Mrs X wear?

[anne1232]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Great news, Bruun. Your determination is very inspiring

[anne1232]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

I take GABA supplement from the health food store and it def. lifts anxiety. Also, rhodiola rosea...can feel it work. Seems that Gabapentin is not the same thing, tho. Hmmm

[Bruunhilde]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Hi Anne,

Yes, it's different than gaba. Costs a shitload more and you have to order from overseas different.

[beatle]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

I'm bumping this thread because I never saw it at the time -- I miss a lot of threads because of being away from the internet so much and time restraints -- and I want to remind myself to read this one -- carefully.

I think Bruun mentioned this somewhere else (on my thread maybe?), and it piqued my interest a little, but I lost track of it. Now I found this thread, I don't want to lose it, but am very pressed for time atm.

[beatle]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Yet another bump. I don't want to lose this one... even tho it is high up there on the list, we all know how fast these threads move!

[Greg]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

This makes me wonder whether some of the other anticonvulsants would also be helpful as anxiolytics or craving reducers, considering that a few are also used as mood stabilisers and are said to help bipolar patients with anxiety and sleep difficulties. Whether that extends to non-bipolar patients is another thing but it seems plausible. Two that come to mind are carbamazepine (Tegretol) and valproate/valproic acid (Depakote, Epilim, etc), with another one being oxcarbazepine (Trileptal).

One doctor I asked about these drugs said he feels they are quite 'heavy' and serious medications, with potential for quite a few side effects. Gabapentin seems to be less heavy in that sense. Also lamotrigine (Lamictal) is one that can help depression quite a bit, just going by reports. Two others, tiagabine and vigabatrin, have some undesirable dangers or issues from memory when I was reading about some of these drugs quite a while ago.

(Edit...topiramate/Topamax is an anticonvulsant already used in alcohol dependence, as pointed out by Bruunhilde...my apologies for somehow forgetting to including it here)

[techie]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

Just thought I'd comment here. I have been alcohol free going on 1 1/2 yrs. I will admit that the craving did not totally ebb. I was in a serious car accident some months ago. Luckily, I was able to ease off the narcotic pain meds w/o a problem. Last month my ortho prescribed Neurontin for my soft tissue and nerve pain. A very wonderful side effect of this med is absolutely NO craving for alcohol at all. Not sure if this med is used off label for alcohol dependency, but it does work at least for me!!!

[Murphyx]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

My Gabapentin arrived today and I dropped a 600mg tab a few hours ago and ... err ... can I ask whether anyone here has ever taken it whilst on HDB?

[eight days a week]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

A fascinating thread - I shall have to research more and reconsider my psych's offer to prescribe pregablin.

[Bruunhilde]

Gabapentin for Anxiety and Alcohol Abuse

That's a big dose Murph, did you get high? One time I took 600mg gabapentin I got high. I'm on low dose bac not HDB so I was wondering if you felt anything after taking the stuff.