Horizant

Use this section to discuss your experiences with prescription drugs, iron injections, and other medical interventions that involve the introduction of a drug or medicine into the body. Discuss side effects, successes, failures, published research, information about drug trials, and information about new medications being developed.

Important: Posts and information in this section are based on personal experiences and recommendations; they should not be considered a substitute for the advice of a healthcare provider.
badnights
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Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: Horizant

Post by badnights »

does RLS always progress requiring higher dose
We answered this question in this thread previously, the answer is no, RLS/WED does not necessarily keep progressing and we do not necessarily need higher and higher doses. Read again the comments :) and don't assume the current rate of worsening, which has been exacerbated by the Mirapex.

It is pointless to ponder 10 years from now when you may be hit by a bus tomorrow. Or more relevantly, research is ongoing and there will definitely be better options in 10 years than there are now. (Compare now to 10 yrs ago).

probably go from daily loose stools or diarrhea to constipation, great now that will really screw up everything too
Again, catastrophic thinking. Avoid constipation by eating lots of veggies, or if worse comes to worse, throw some cooking bran on your breakfast every morning and drink a big glass of water with it. Lots of us take opioids and have no constipation because we adjust our diets.

And - you probably should stay off the forums! You're picking the bad stuff to remember and not the good stuff! Like the fact that WED does not progress in any noticeable fashion for many of us, nor do we need to keep raising doses. Remember the good stuff!
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

pjmccoy1
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 7:00 pm
Location: Below the Mason Dixon Line USA

Re: Horizant

Post by pjmccoy1 »

Okay Horizant users. Re-trialing Horizant again. I cannot remember all side effects I had in the past but I vaguely remember after being on it for almost a year having some vision issues and dry eyes mainly at night. Then spring of 2014 after only 2 weeks couldn't open eyelids at night after being on it for only a couples weeks. Well, after 11 days my eyes (which are already dry) got significantly worse last night with pain. Has anyone else had eye/vision issues with Horizant or Gabapentin?
PJ, Heaven Bound

ViewsAskew
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Location: Los Angeles

Re: Horizant

Post by ViewsAskew »

I hate to say this....but our pool of users is relatively small. Even though we have a lot of people who read and do not post, only a hundred or so people are likely reading the board regularly. Of those, only a percentage will have tried Horizant.

My guess is that you would find out a LOT more at one of the sites that is specifically about drug side effects. Like this one: http://factmed.com/study-HORIZANT-causing-DRY%20EYE.php or this one: http://www.ehealthme.com/ds/horizant/dry+eyes

Hope this helps.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Rustsmith
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Horizant

Post by Rustsmith »

Although the number of Horizant users is probably quite limited (I used it for less than a week), if you add the current and former gabapentin users then there would be a few more. After all, Horizant turns into gabapentin once it is in the blood stream.

I only used Horizant for a short time simply because it did not provide any improvement over the FAR cheaper gabapentin.

As for dry eyes, I have not noticed that side effect. However, I have noticed that I have a bit more problems getting my eyes to focus, especially first thing in the morning.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Aipulu
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:12 am
Location: Maui, Hawaii

Re: Horizant

Post by Aipulu »

I only used Horizant for a short time simply because it did not provide any improvement over the FAR cheaper gabapentin.

I asked you about this in another forum. So here is the answer I seek. The other issue I have with Horizant is that YOu need to take this at 5:30 pm with food. That can be a problem since I am not always home or eating at that time. What time do you take Neurontin? My experience is 3 hours before I want to go to bed works best.

Rustsmith
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Horizant

Post by Rustsmith »

I take my gabapentin about 30 minutes before going to bed. If I were to try to take it any earlier, I would be trying to fall asleep all evening.
I also have a problem that I appear to metabolize it a bit faster than normal, so that it does not last quite as long as it should and I wake up in the very early morning. That is the reason why I take 1200mg as opposed to the 600 mg where I started off. The higher dose seems to last a bit longer. I also take a sleep aid (Rozerem) to try to stay asleep a bit longer.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

ViewsAskew
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Posts: 16571
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:37 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Horizant

Post by ViewsAskew »

I do the opposite of Steve. I take it, when I do, at least 3-4 hours before bed. That it because I seem to undermetabolize and it's in my system a LONG time. If I took it right before bed, I'd sleep 12-16 hours. But, if I take it a few hours earlier, I only sleep 8-10 hours. I still wake up foggy and fuzzy and it takes some time to awaken, but at least I can wake up!

Seems Steve and I need to merge our metabolisms, lol, to get to something closer to middle of the road :-).
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Aipulu
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:12 am
Location: Maui, Hawaii

Re: Horizant

Post by Aipulu »

I used to take Neurontin 2 hours before I wanted to sleep but have recently shifted to 3 hours earlier. Either way, on 600 mg I tend to wake up early, about 5 - 6 am, after 6-7 hours sleep. But then I get groggy after about 30 minutes later and go lay down and get another hour of sleep. The half-life of Neurontin is 5-7 hours it seems that I need almost two half lives to get rid of the residual grogginess.

Aipulu
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:12 am
Location: Maui, Hawaii

Re: Horizant

Post by Aipulu »

Steve and Ann, were you talking about Horizant or Neurontin. I see that the topic is Horizant but was thinking you were talking about Neurontin. Since I am soon to start shifting to Horizant I am interested in what happens if you take that drug much later than the 5:30 pm time that is recommended.

Rustsmith
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Horizant

Post by Rustsmith »

What I am currently taking is generic Neurontin. Several weeks back I evaluated Horizant. I took the Horizant at dinner time because it is supposed to be adsorbed better with food. I suppose that there is also a bit of lag time for Horizant since it goes through more of the intestinal tract and also need a to convert to plain gabapentin once in the blood stream.

In my case the problem is that the gabapentin in either form is wearing off too early. Therefore taking it any earlier would mean that it would wear off that much earlier.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

ViewsAskew
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Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:37 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Horizant or Gapapentin :-)

Post by ViewsAskew »

Aipulu wrote:Steve and Ann, were you talking about Horizant or Neurontin. I see that the topic is Horizant but was thinking you were talking about Neurontin. Since I am soon to start shifting to Horizant I am interested in what happens if you take that drug much later than the 5:30 pm time that is recommended.


The immediate posts above were about neurontin, so that is what I was talking about more recently. The original topic was about Horizant. Since they are sister drugs, they are very similar, which is why I think the conversation morphed.

Just as Steve noted that it wore off too soon for him, it lingers for me causing problems the other way. I was having trouble with insomnia last night, so I took 100 mg about an hour before I went to sleep. I slept great. And overslept my alarm by almost 3 hours. When I did wake up, I had to sit in front of the TV watching something that didn't require any brain power. I was making a sandwich and literally couldn't remember things I'd done a few seconds prior. I took the capsule around 1 AM and it was about 3 PM before my brain was mostly functional. HOWEVER! I do not take it daily. If I did, this very likely would not be so bad. In the past, when I've taken it regularly, it does get somewhat better....but it never goes away completely for me.

I guess the short of it is: you won't know until you do it, since our bodies can metabolize things so differently.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

pjmccoy1
Posts: 80
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 7:00 pm
Location: Below the Mason Dixon Line USA

Re: Horizant

Post by pjmccoy1 »

Well 7 weeks on Horizant and even though have been on Bupropion (Generic Wellbutrin) 3 months, I believe the depression is getting worse again. Of course battling another chronic disease/illness (possibly auto immune) wasn't a mood booster. So I have tried gluten and mostly dairy free diet for 4 weeks and naturally lose even more weight. How can anyone do WAHLS or AIP diets without dropping weight overnight? I lost 4 lbs in 3 days and I didn't need to lose anymore weight. Anyhow, my Psych wasn't wild about the addition of Horizant again but my RLS doc was okay re-trialing since I am on an anti-depressant. Now I guess I am back to square one when I self report concerns to my RLS doc and Psych regarding Horizant. I give up. Go see the Rheumatologist next Wednesday for what I am not sure since no one seems to have any treatment plans for my messed up maze. Just scared.
PJ, Heaven Bound

Rustsmith
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Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Horizant

Post by Rustsmith »

I cannot speak specifically for the WAHLS or AIP diets since I use a slightly different modification of the low carb diet to control my migraines and to remain consistent with my dietary needs as an endurance runner. In my case, I need a large number of calories to compensate for all the miles that I run each week (my base requirement is between 2800 and 3000 calories/day). I used to make this up by eating a lot of pasta. Now I have to get the extra calories by eating things that have higher "good" fats to get the extra calories. These are things like high omega-6 eggs, olive oil, salmon, unsweetened peanut butter, etc.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

ViewsAskew
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Posts: 16571
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:37 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Horizant

Post by ViewsAskew »

pjmccoy1 - here's a virtual hug - wish I could give you one in person.

I wish I had something smart to say or had some knowledge that would help you. I'd tell you to hang in there, but I'm sure you're hanging in the best you can. Do let us know what they say and have you do.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

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