I had a manic reaction to Effexor back in January. Hours after taking the dose I was panic stricken and this continued way after the Effexor wore off. I became agoraphobic, shaky, nightmares, etc... My doctor put me on valium at 10 mg/day (this was a GP). Ever since then I've gone from doctor to doctor looking for answers. I finally went to a psychiatrist who thinks that I did indeed have a manic reaction. She put me on 100 mg. Neurontin. I took one pill and it made me MORE manic. I was back to the racing thoughts, couldn't sleep, hot/cold sensations, etc.. It's taken a couple of days for this to wear off. I've weaned myself down to around 8 mg on the valium since January, but I still have a lot of the symptoms I had once I took the Effexor. The valium never really made me feel better, except to help my sleep a bit (that's why I started weaning off). Has anyone had this experience with Neurontin? Should I try another mood stabilizer? I've never had any of the delusionary thoughts, money spending, etc you hear about with bi-polar---I just feel like I'm on speed all the time, especially in the mornings. Thanks for any responses.

Should I try another mood stabilizer?

What other mood stabilizers have you tried? What about lithium?

Neurontin is the first one tried. This is the first doctor I've been too who thinks I had a manic reaction. All the others have basically told me it was just nerves and to take my valium.

I take Neurontin and never even heard of it causing manic problems.
I take mine for my nerve from back to my leg and also for my vericoss veins, cause sometimes they burn like fire...

I just wanted to mention to you to be very cautious when you are taking ANY SSRIs as it appears you are having the same type of reaction as my son did to them.After a year from hell, he was finally Dxed with a horrid sensitivity to any and all SSRIs which ended up causing Bi polar III.He was only mildly depressed before starting on prozac.he ended up changing his entire personality on these meds.We tried prozac, with many ups in dosages(very bad idea),then we went to Lexapro,same thing,then we went to effexor and that is what caused the biggest anger explosion and thankfully, landed him in an adolesent mental health facility where he was Dxed with SSRI induced bi polar III.We have absolutely NO hx of any mental health problems on either side of the family except for depression(me and my sister)but nothing else.If you are reacting in a totally different way from your normal personality, it sounds like this could be happening to you as well.My son, in just a matter of weeks after starting the prozac, went from a kind hearted, funloving kid with a really wonderful sense of humor, to a cold sullen angry boy.It was horrid to watch this deterioration of his normal self.This boy was not my son.Just be very very careful when taking these SSRIs.If you see a big change in your normal personality(make sure the people around you are aware of what you are taking so they can monitor you as well)get the heck off of the stuff and don't look back.This Bi polar III is becoming more and more common.jane Pauley was on dateline about a month ago discussing her problem with this disorder herself.God, she explained her situation and how it happened and it was like listening to my sons life all over again.please just watch it ,K? i would not want to wish this experience on anyone.Marcia

Oh, there is no doubt in my mind that the problems that I've had have been from SSRI induced mania. I was given this junk for perimenopausal symptoms--not even a psychiatric diagnosis. The problem has been getting back to normal since I had the reaction. I'm reading more and more myself about people having these problems and reactions from antidepressants. The problem is--what to do. It seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon going along with the increase of prescribing these drugs. Is there anything that finally stabilized your son after his reaction?

Certainly any psychiatric med (like any other drug) can cause horrid side effects.

But I just want to clarify that neither Effexor nor Neurontin are SSRIs. Effexor is one of the "other" anti-depressants, meaning that it is not an SSRI, MAOI, or a tricyclic. Neurontin is not technically an anti-depressant at all, but certainly many docs do prescribe it "off-label" for psych problems.

Glamdais - are you being treated by a psychiatrist or another specialist?

My son was taken off of the effexor and was eventually placed on depakote.He calls it his "happy" pill.Once we found the thereputic dose for him, the change was incredible,really.i now have my son 'back".he is pretty much back to his old happier self now.His anger has gotten sooo very much better and his sense of humor has now returned.unfortunetly for him, he had an accident in july where he fell off his friends car and landed on his head.The car was moving at the time.He suffered a pretty severe head injury(skull fracture and frontal lobe bleeding).was in a coma for about a week.he is almost back to his old self but his ability to know right from wrong and his executive thinking was badly affected,but with the proper therepy,he is getting that back as well.maybe you should suggest to your doc about trying the depakote.It really IS working wonders for my son.i still cannot get over the huge change he is experiencing,i really thought we had lost him forever you know?good luck to you,marcia