I am wondering because at my last doctors appointment I told the doc that I have been having a lot of shooting pains at night (obviously that's nerve pain) and I asked him if he thought I needed to increase my dose of Neurontin. I take 100mg at bedtime, which by what I have read on here isn't very much. He looked at me funny and said no. Instead he gave me an RX for Ambien, but I didn't even fill it because that medication makes me groggy for 2 days after I take it.
Anyway, I was wondering if maybe he thought I was fishing for more Neurontin, I know people abuse all kinds of stuff. Personally, I don't see the draw but I only take neurontin at night so I don't really know how it makes me feel.
So have you heard of people getting "high" on it, is that why my doctor looked at me funny?
I have not heard of neurontin being abused, after taking it myself I don't see any relation to that kind of thing. You are taking a very low dose, almost not even worth taking it. Why would he prescribe ambien which I think most people should try to avoid instead of bringing up your neurontin dose a bit - I think that is an odd reaction. What is your diagnosis for nerve pain? Or are you taking it for mood?
I've never heard of it, but neurontin and lyrica both caused very strange side effects for me. Severe sedation, and a sense of being sort of disconnected to reality. The neurontin also caused my hands and feet to swell hugely, and the lyrica affected my ability to talk. Right before I went off it my 95 yr old FIL had a small stroke and if a medical person had been in the room with the two of us, they likely would have thought I was the one who had had a stroke. At that point I told the Dr - NO MORE. Both these drugs can cause neurological side effects so I suppose it's possible there are people who get some sort of euphoria from it or something. Both are a medication that you have to up the dosage slowly and if you have to go off it you need to go slowly too, there is some physical dependance.
I take 200mg of neurotin at night and I too see no side effects that would make me want to abuse it. My sciatica has improved, but is still there and my regular doc said that I was on a very low dose, I guess some people are on at least 600mg a day.
Sorry that it doesn't answer your question, but I wonder why they gave you ambien instead?
That's a strange reaction from your doctor. I find that most docs LOVE to prescribe Neurontin for pain relief & sleep for the very purpose of avoiding drugs with abuse potential like narcotics and tranquilizers. Also, I agree 100mg is an extremely low dose. When I started on Neurontin 7 years ago, my rheumatologist put me on 600mg per day. When my neurologist found out he said that was too low of a dose and he upped it to 1800mg. Eventually I was taking 4500mg per day with no high feelings at all. The fact that Neurontion is not a scheduled med should tell you something about it's low abuse potential. It doesn't sound like your doc is well educated about this particular med.
Well I can say that Neurontin & Lyrica are very similar and Lyrica is a Schedule V medication because it does have "some" abuse potential. It was given to drug addicts and found to cause a "likeable" feeling or calming effect similar to a benzodiazepine. However, this is not the case with Neurontin as far as I know. I think your doctor is very strange too for not increasing your Neurontin, I used to be on it and was taking 3600mg/day. I currently take Lyrica at 450mg/day but was on 600mg/day for quite awhile until I could not take the sedation any longer.
I am wondering because at my last doctors appointment I told the doc that I have been having a lot of shooting pains at night (obviously that's nerve pain) and I asked him if he thought I needed to increase my dose of Neurontin. I take 100mg at bedtime, which by what I have read on here isn't very much. He looked at me funny and said no. Instead he gave me an RX for Ambien, but I didn't even fill it because that medication makes me groggy for 2 days after I take it.
Anyway, I was wondering if maybe he thought I was fishing for more Neurontin, I know people abuse all kinds of stuff. Personally, I don't see the draw but I only take neurontin at night so I don't really know how it makes me feel.
So have you heard of people getting "high" on it, is that why my doctor looked at me funny?
I think you should seriously consider finding a different doctor. First, 100mg of Neurontin won't even bring you up to therapeutic levels. Because of such a low dose, it makes me wonder if he isn't using it as a pleseabo. That's no non-effective 100mg really is. Instead of increasing a medication that has - for all practicle purposes - no chance of abuse, he prescribes Ambien, which does have abuse potential. If my doctor did that, he would soon have one less patient.
