GABAPENTIN has been prescribed since the ’90s. Throughout the last 2 decades, it has exploded with “off label uses”. This medication is a dream for pharmaceutical companies. In the beginning, it was prescribed for 2-3 different reasons, now it has over 20 different reasons it’s being prescribed.
Anxiety gabapen nerve pain gabapentin coming off alcohol gabapentin gabapentin getting prescribed for everything what is it why are people taking it let’s get into it kate ruggs the sober dog i’m a certified peer recovery coach also in recovery myself and uh we’re gonna talk about gabapentin today i’ve been prescribed gabapentin taking gabapentin before i get into
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Anyone else wants to help support silver dogs check out patreon all right so gabapentin what is gabapentin gabapentin also known as narotten those are the two names you probably heard people say when they’re talking about it some other names for it you got fuse pack fan tricks gabarone and gray leaves but the most common ones you’re going to hear are gabapentin
Or neurotin this has been around this medication since about the 90s and originally designed to help treat people with epilepsy help with seizures the two main things it is and was prescribed for are treating people with epilepsy and pain following shingles you know nerve specific nerve pain to do with shingles now in the last two decades they they’ve been
Giving out gabapentin for so many off-label reasons a lot here’s some of them you got everything from nerve pain diabetic neuropathy um prevent hot flashes restless leg syndrome other menopause symptoms anxiety generalized pain nerve pain alcohol dependence sleep issues insomnia fibromyalgia hiccups intense itching depression uh carpal tunnel bipolar coughing
And migraines i mean they give this for everything when i was in prison they would give this from when i first got in in 2013 guys would be getting this for basically anything and everything for the first two years just pain gabapentin anxiety gabapentin can’t sleep gabapentin and then they i think they realized how much they over prescribed it and how people
Were abusing it and then they started cutting everyone off towards the end of my time 2016 2017 it was a big shift how it actually works and what the mechanisms of gabapentin are is actually not fully understood it’s in a class of drugs that are considered anti-convulsants so that’s where it was originally designed for you know the seizures and the epilepsy it
Does come in uh tablets capsules or liquid uh the tablets are 600 800 milligrams the capsules are 100 300 400 um and the liquid they usually come different doses but i believe 250 milligrams is roughly the liquid dose the max dose per day of gabapentin is 3 600 milligrams that seems pretty insane to me a high amount but i’m not a doctor it is a type of med almost
Like an antidepressant that usually works better once it’s built up in the system so they start people on like 300 a day and then the next day they’ll do 600 for a couple days and then build it up till they get to whatever dose they’re they’re you know seeking um a lot of times that’s around 1800 milligrams depending on what it’s given for some of the side effects
Of gabapentin uh you got you know groggy and foggy seem to be two of the biggest ones just that kind of downer effect you got mood changes dry mouth depression allergic reaction trouble sleeping worsening anxiety fever nausea vomiting trouble speaking jerky movements hostility along with those changes in mood it can make you know people get cranky restlessness
Panic attacks trouble sleeping anger aggression emotional changes so you know like most medicines it’s got a ton of side effects whether they affect certain people or not is totally dependent on the person one of the things i think that a lot of people didn’t understand including maybe some doctors was the withdrawal gabapentin definitely has a withdrawal and
You know i saw this again with with prison when they started all of a sudden cutting a lot of people off it people were experiencing withdrawal what that withdrawal is like i would say like a very minor opioid withdrawal like a tenth of what an opioid withdrawal would be but your normal sweats chills you know trouble sleeping fatigue no energy maybe some upset
Stomach things like that not nearly as long as opioids and not nearly as bad but also depending on the dose somebody’s coming off of and how quickly would be how bad the symptoms are one of the other things with gabapentin is it was given and still is a lot to people in recovery because it’s understood to be less addictive and less abuse potential than opioids
So people in recovery that had pain you know especially 20 you know 2000 to 2012 13 they were given this a lot thinking it’s a lot safer and a lot better now it is less addictive and most likely you know a lot safer than opioids but it still is somewhat addictive and can be abused and they’re seeing that a lot now a lot more people are having gabapentin issues
Taking too much can’t come off it hooked on it tolerance taking it to get high taking it for abuse that is something that’s going on a lot now in the last couple years as they’re seeing some of the effects of prescribing a ton of gabapentin just how much is prescribed in 2018 it was the 11th most prescribed medicine in the united states 45 million prescriptions
For gabapentin that’s a lot i mean think about all the meds out there the 11th most prescribed that’s kind of insane so it’s out there it’s everywhere it’s being prescribed for a ton of reasons the next video i’m going to tell you about me taking it me abusing it all the effects and how it felt and what was i’m going to get into all of it for you guys all right
Don’t miss it kate rugs a silver dog i’m out see ya
Transcribed from video
Gabapentin (Neurontin) – WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE ON THIS MEDICINE? What Are The Effects? By Sober Dogs
