tell me tales of neurontin

April 22, 2008 9:35 AM

Your feelings about neurontin, for depression or anything else.

I've been prescribed neurontin for depression (not bipolar disorder, mind you). since this is an off-label use, there isn't much good data on its use in this capacity, and what data there is isn't good. so i am interested in your anecdotals. My last round with a mood-stabilizer (lamictal) was frustrating because they have to titrate you up so slowly; SSRIs work decently but I don't like the side effects; SNRIs are useless; and wellbutrin didn't help. I'm dubious about neurontin. should i be?

posted by bluenausea to health (13 comments total)

I was on Neurontin for a while, not for depression but to heal nerve damage caused by a ruptured disk. In addition to not helping my problem very much, it had the added problem of making me extremely drowsy, to the point where I was often dozing off at my desk at work. My doctor told me the primary reason for this is that, at least for my problem, Neurontin is only effective in high dosages, which of course makes side effects that much more likely. Once I reported that the drowsiness was seriously interfering with my life, they promptly switched me to Lyrica, which is Neuorontin's successor and effective in much smaller dosages.

Best of luck to you in your treatment.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:15 AM on April 22

I thought neurontin was shown to have the opposite effect, to actually cause depression in some number of cases... I was on it for almost 10 years for a seizure disorder, but eventually neurologists lost faith in it - first it became a secondary drug and then people started saying it actually wasn't useful at all, and then the word was that it had negative effects, the most prominent of which was causing depression.

Possibly the theory is that it causes depression in happy people and causes happy in depressed people, or something, but I was a depressive teenager before I went on it and a depressive 20-something while I was on it, and now I am a somewhat well-adjusted 30-something no longer on it, but really, I doubt much of it has to do with meds (I'm in a relationship, I exercise, I like my current occupational route...)

So you know where I'm coming from, previous related thoughts
posted by mdn at 10:17 AM on April 22

I took gabapentin(generic name) for around 1.5 months last year after having a bullet travel close enough to my sciatic nerve to scramble the signals coming from it up. Once I started taking it (three or four days after the incident) I did notice a change in the type of pain I was feeling. It dulled the "electric" or "pins and needle" feelings randomly being sent to my brain from most of my leg. As for it's effect on my mental state I can't say for sure since I had IV morphine for a week and after that oxycontin with lortabs and was generally traumatized from being shot.
posted by thylacine at 11:55 AM on April 22

I took it several years ago but I thought it was for anxiety rather than depression. I don't know that I was ever sure it made any difference.
posted by Carbolic at 12:50 PM on April 22

I took it once. Felt kind of dreamy and relaxed. That's it. Didn't take it again. Met someone years later who was on it chronically for pain and his whole affect was flat and emotionless. It was like the drug zapped him from all of his vitality. He spoke, joked but it was like he wasn't really there.
posted by watercarrier at 12:54 PM on April 22

My wife took it for a couple of years for (what we thought at the time were) false pain reports. Adjusting to taking it was very rough -- she felt the same exhaustion described upthread. She couldn't drive her car on the highway more than about an hour and a half without having to pull over on the shoulder over to nap. However, there's an adjustment phase there. If you keep taking it and tough it out, after a few weeks the drowsiness goes away and your body adjusts. Once she adjusted, she was active and happy, with the caveat that she couldn't sleep if she forgot her evening pill.
posted by middleclasstool at 2:14 PM on April 22

I was prescribed neurontin, along with Wellbutrin, for depression/anxiety. It kind of took the edge off the buzzy/useless energy feeling that I initally got from the Wellbutrin, but as I adjusted to the Wellbutrin, I noticed that the neurontin made me pretty dull and sleepy and just...stupid-feeling. I switched to a very low dose of xanax for the anxiety and it's been loads better. I remember hearing someone refer to neurontin as "moron-tin" -- that about sums up my experience.
posted by capnsue at 2:21 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

Gabapentin mimics GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid), which is a neurotransmitter. It does not attach to the same receptors. It is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS and is not approved for treatment of depression or anxiety; it is approved for the treatment of pain, mostly neuropathic pain, and some seizures. (This is from NIH's PubMed.) Now, to my knowledge, GABA is not usually implicated in depression (the usual culprits are serotonin and dopamine). Any use of it for psychological problems is off-label and very controversial. Even according to the FDA -

"FDA informed healthcare professionals that the Agency has analyzed reports of suicidality (suicidal behavior or ideation) from placebo-controlled clinical studies of eleven drugs used to treat epilepsy as well as psychiatric disorders, and other conditions. In the FDA's analysis, patients receiving antiepileptic drugs had approximately twice the risk of suicidal behavior or ideation (0.43%) compared to patients receiving placebo (0.22%). The increased risk of suicidal behavior and suicidal ideation was observed as early as one week after starting the antiepileptic drug and continued through 24 weeks. The results were generally consistent among the eleven drugs. The relative risk for suicidality was higher in patients with epilepsy compared to patients who were given one of the drugs in the class for psychiatric or other conditions."

For the love of reason, don't use the drug unless it's approved for the treatment of something or unless it's in a controlled drug trial. (Although, if anyone reading this is someone who prescribes something like this for a living - hello ikkyu2! - please chime in.)
posted by kldickson at 4:11 PM on April 22

Strictly anecdotal: I took neurontin for about a year to deal with neuropathy due to chemo therapy. The neurontin worked well, and the only side effect I noticed was drowsiness, as previously mentioned.
posted by gteffertz at 4:57 PM on April 22

give it a try. i find neurontin to be both efficacious and innocuous, pretty rare in my experience for a mood-altering substance. at worst, it makes you sleepy and sort of stupid-feeling. but the effect wears off quickly and in my experience there are no withdrawal symptoms, nor does one need larger and larger doses to achieve the same state of mind. at its best, it takes away the edge for me, the constant alarm going off in my head wanting me to *do something.* it feels a little like being stoned on marijuana.

good luck!
posted by macinchik at 8:13 PM on April 22

try homeopathy. seriously.
posted by healthyliving at 11:30 PM on April 22

For the love of reason, don't try homeopathy. It kills people.
posted by kldickson at 7:01 AM on April 23

thanks guys, i'm looking for something that will emotionally and mentally gut me, and sounds like neurontin is just the ticket!
posted by bluenausea at 8:55 AM on April 23