Medication for Fibromyalgia

[WhoDat83]

Has anyone has success with gabapentin? I was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia and neuropathy. At the starter dosage I do see some relief in some small areas. Weather changes, trying to fall asleep, physical activity, RLS, foot pain - no help yet. I do not know what to expect and if increasing the dosage will eventually help ease more of these symptoms. Thank you in advance for your comments and assistance.

Brad,
i ve been diagnosed almost for 2 years now. first thing rheumatologist prescribed was gabapentin 300 mgs and did not do anything. he wanted to increase the dose but i did not believe it would help but just create weird side effects and later on would be difficult to stop. But this is just me and my experience. Like everybody says, and i believe so too, meds have different effects on different bodies.
Anyway.. said that..one day i read a post on this group where somebody red, heard and wanted to try a med called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and given that i ve tried everything i was like..let me try..who knows. it says that you have to take it at least for 30 days in order to start noticing if it is effective or not.
Contacted my rheumatologist and he prescribed it to me. i had to find a compounding pharmacy close to where i live because the dosage was 4.5 and they don't sell it in normal pharmacies.
it s now almost 1 month and 3 weeks i m getting it and i have to say that ON ME is doing great. pain has reduced i would say by 80-90%. some day i feel i dont have any pain at all and some day i feel normal FM symptoms. But overall there are more days that i m ok than days that i have peak of pain.
Hang in there buddy..try different things and see what works for you.

 

[MarsB]

I have finally found some relief with gabapentin + Zanaflex. My doctors allow for me to increase/ decrease depending on how I feel. Good luck!
PS: No relief from CBD and I’ve tried many brands.

 

[Auriel]

@MarsB does your gabapentin make you super drowsy? (it does me) 🛏

 

[Veron1966]

I on pre gabs after being on gabapentine none work

 

[Auriel]

What’s pre gabs?

 

[JayCS]

What’s pre gabs?

pregabalin ('Lyrica'), the 'successor' to gabapentin ('Neurontin')... worth trying both if you're on that route...

 

[Auriel]

Oh no, I tried lyrica before (gave me auditory and visual hallucinations) scary as. didn’t help I was reading a true life haunting book at the time, I thought the story had come out of my book! Never taking that again

 

[MarsB]

@MarsB does your gabapentin make you super drowsy? (it does me) 🛏

Yes! I only take at bedtime but sleep at least helps me for the next day! ( well, I’m theory it should! )

 

[JamieMarc]

Gabapentin never helped me much at all. The adverse side effects, for me, outweighed any benefit.

 

[JayCS]

This is a link to my post about a big recent comparison between amitriptyline, pregabalin (aka pre gabs ;-P), duloxetine and milnacipran. No word lost about gabapentin, so I'll now check for studies comparing it with pregabalin, since that was developed as an improvement of gabapentin...
Now I'm mind-blown : It's not possible to compare pregabalin to its precursor gabapentin, as there is NO real evidence for gabapentin helping fibromyalgia at all
I always thought gabapentin never got an FDA-approval just because pregabalin was later, but turns out gabapentin has no evidence for FM, but has been hyped by the industry, and unknowing docs are now frantically = wrongly using it even more all the same, as an alternative to opioids - that's what several recent reviews are saying.

Only one (much earlier) study (Lloyd et al 2012, 682 patients) said:
"At 1 year, pregabalin was cost saving and more effective than placebo, duloxetine, tramadol, milnacipran, and gabapentin. Compared with amitriptyline, pregabalin was not cost-effective at both dosages".

If anyone's ever heard of mirogabalin as next in line, but "in infancy": first results 2019/2020 are disappointing.

 

[Auriel]

What did the gabs do to you @JamieMarc (if your ok with me asking) did they make you super drowsy? I feel like I’m in a weird dream state with them (I start slurring my words sometimes too) but the people I know know it’s my pain meds, you found anything that helped any yet?

 

[fimi]

I'm on pregabalin not gabapentin @Auriel but I have speech problems sometimes where I miss words and I hiss instead (can be embarrassing!) But like you I need them for the pain. If only there was a med that didn't have these horrible side effects. (now I'm in a dreamy state!)

 

[Auriel]

Yes @fimi I’d like like that too!

 

[JamieMarc]

I probably could have worded that better. I received no benefits whatsoever with gabapentin...not for neuropathy, fibro nor post-herpetic neuralgia. All it ever did was make me drowsy and feeling fatigued.
After 6.5 years of pain, and trying dozens of procedures, meds, and specialists, I have found, just recently, the most effective treatment for me thus far: tramadol and diazepam. Note...my diazepam is prescribed for social anxiety, but it also helps with my fibro symptoms. And for me it works beautifully alongside the recently prescribed tramadol. I do not get all day, complete relief, but I finally have quality of life again.

 

[sunkacola]

JamieMarc, I am very glad you have found something that helps.
At the same time I want to caution you about taking tramadol regularly for more than a short period of time. As an opiate, it is highly addictive, and you don't want to go down that path. For a lot of people the dose has to be raised and then raised again over time because it will very often not work as well. Even if you do not raise the dosage, you run the risk of becoming addicted to the drug. Anyone who has been down that road and therefore had to stop taking it will tell you that it is not something you want to do.

Tramadol is great if used only intermittently and seldom, say once or twice a month. That can get you through bad patches without any risk. I know you won't want to just stop taking it but I urge you to try everything else you can that is non-medication and do your best to taper off the tramadol at some point before you have taken it for more than a few months.