Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

johnmarg wrote:Hi Bry;

I had read somewhere that Gabapentin is only effective up to a dose of 900 MG. After that, added dosage has no effect of RLS.

Hey John,
I can't agree with that. I'm living proof to the contrary. If I stuck to 900mg I'd have some uncomfortable nights at this stage of this disease.

Apparently all or most of these drugs used to treat RLS have bad withdraw symptoms. We are not swimming in friendly waters.

It's great coming here and reading all your comments. Knowledge makes for better living. Many thanks.

Most likely without opioids I would not be able to live. RLS untreated I would not want to live. It's a little after 1 am and I'm poppin' another 300 mg of Gabapentin after just waking up with symptoms. Were you on gabapentin before going on opioids? I'm wondering what my options are if this drug e...

Try increasing the dose. I started out at 300 mg of gabapentin a night but gradually increased to 1200 - 1500 mg a night. 95% of the time I sleep very well.

I was late this evening taking my usual dose which may be why I woke up with symptoms.

Most likely without opioids I would not be able to live. RLS untreated I would not want to live. It's a little after 1 am and I'm poppin' another 300 mg of Gabapentin after just waking up with symptoms. Were you on gabapentin before going on opioids? I'm wondering what my options are if this drug e...

Well I'm ok for now other than a bit of weight gain, which is annoying. I thought a withdraw from gabapentin might be something like a withdraw from opioids. Maybe a better treatment is on the horizon.

Just curious if anyone has experienced Gabapentin withdraw symptoms. I sometimes wonder if any discomfort I feel with my RLS is Gabapentin withdraw symptoms because I don't always take the same dosage from day to day. One day might be as high as 1800 mg, the next 1200.

I woke at 5 am with symptoms this morning so I'm thinking my second dose of Gabapentin at 10 pm rather than 9. I'm finding my RLS is expanding to a 12 hour cycle up from an initial 6-8 hour cycle 6 months ago and the mg has increased to 1200-1500 mg. Yeah, timing is pretty important.

Tonight no problem and meds on time. Lesson learned - also programed my phone alarm. Funny thing is it's a $15 flip phone so the repeat alarm only works for weekdays LOL.

Last night was bad. I usually take 600mg of Gabapentin at 5:00 and another 600mg at 9:00. I missed my 5:00 by 2 hours and was hit by strong symptoms that 1800mg over a 3 hour period couldn't treat. I finally took 2 of the 3 hydrocodone tablets left over from a tooth extraction. That did it, thank go...

Thanks Steve. I submitted my 2 cents though I think it's more like 20 bucks.

Too bad non opioid RLS patients can't chime in and have a say. Some of us will likely be prescribed opioids in the future for our RLS. To these awful 'guidelines': 2 weeks ago I had a tooth extraction resulting in a dry socket (dry sockets are very painful). After I rifled through 15 tablets of hydr...

Wow, thanks so much for the input/info. This is very helpful. Seems I'm not alone in my difficulty describing the symptoms of RLS. The gabapentin I'm taking works pretty well but occasionally I wake up in the middle of the night with full on symptoms. I'm not really a drinker (4oz of wine with Itali...