Posted by yxibow on March 10, 2007, at 2:32:30
In reply to Replacing benzos with gabapentin?, posted by donut on March 9, 2007, at 13:03:23
> I've been taking benzos since 1998 and would like to get off of them. I've heard of people getting relief from anxiety with gabapentin. Would those of you who have tried both be willing to say what worked better for you? Thanks
This all will probably get redirected to the withdrawal board.
Is there a specific reason why you want to drop them? A fear of toxicity or just simply have always not felt great on them? I mean its your body, I'm not suggesting it one way or the other, I'm just noting that there have been people on benzodiazepines since they came out around 1960 and they still function.
As far as gabapentin, I still question the role in my treatment. I take 3600 a day. You can really only take about 900 at a time before it all pees out. From numerous patient-years of use thats basically seen as mostly harmless.
At first there was a dramatic difference, my speech was slurred, I was slowed down extremely. There was some anxiolytic relief, a little. But today, I think it only augments Valium.
You'd probably find higher relief from what I've heard here with Lyrica (very similar to Neurontin but schedule V controlled) provided you're not one (me) of the 10% or so who get blurred vision.
But over the longhaul, no, it is not intense enough to get off of benzodiazepines, if you have any significant dose, and it depends on the benzodiazepine too. If it was Xanax I would say that would be hard to come up against.
But no matter how you withdraw, if you want, from a benzodiazepine, do it with a doctor, and regardless, do it slowly, like 5-10% a week. Don't just dump it, trust me, you'll create a mess -- benzodiazepines are probably the least side effect ridden psychotropics but you can get seizures and other things if you drop them cold.-- tidings
poster:yxibow
thread:739534
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070308/msgs/739731.html