Gabapentin and opiates?

[whorse]

Gabapentin is an anti-epileptic that is relatively weak on its own, but SWIM has heard that when mixed with benzos it makes them exponentially stronger (but he cannot confirm this). SWIM has also heard that it is used to treat opiate addiction and weaken withdrawal symptoms. What would happen if SWIM were to take a mix of a conservative amount of opiates and gabapentin? Would it negate the effects of the opiates or make them stronger? Please enlighten SWIM

Also what would happen if SWIM added benzos to the mix?

thanks

[thegoodfight]

Swim knows a friend who has mixed opiates and gabapentin. Gabapentin can give you a drunk kind of feeling and even give you an "upper" type feel while making you less coordinated. Swim doesn't think it potentiates the euphoric effects to terribly much. Swim would say that it is a decent replacemant for GHB, but without the visuals.

Adding 20mg of diazepam to 1g gabapentin did not seem to make the euphoric feeling much better but did give swim and INCREDIBLE nights sleep!

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[whorse]

swim just tried 600mg gabapentin, 7.5mg hydrocodone and 1mg xanax and didnt feel much, maybe even less than swim would have if he didnt take the gabapentin at all.

[thegoodfight]

Swim found that gabapentin is a strange drug. Swim/y may be able to take a hight dosage, but once swim/y hits that and exceeds it, it gets messy. It is much like GHB in a way. Take too little and no effect, too much and swiy is out of control.

This dose is mainly for recreational use. If swim/y is using for medical purposes, it doesn't have that fine line dosage..

[cckatie45]

swim takes gabapentin 800 4x/d plus oxicodone...it enhances the pain relief. swim was in an car accident and broke everything from the neck down and was left w/a spinal cord injury. it works for swim

[DrMuffy]

Gabapentin has been sold (off label) as a pain releiver for pain due to nueron damage, so the analgesia will probably be increased, it is not opiate or benzo tho....

[cckatie45]

true... but it boosts the effect of the opiate for pain.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by cckatie45

true... but it boosts the effect of the opiate for pain.

Although it may potentiate the analgesic effect of opiates due to the fact that it can relieve some neurological pain (pain signals arising in the CNS itself, rather than the peripheral nervous system), SWIM does not think that Gabapentin would increase the recreational/euphoric effects of opiates. Gabapentin has some strange effects on its own, not to mention when it is combined with other drugs, so SWIM advises against this combination for recreational use. At best it would be ineffective, at worst, potentially risky.

[DrMuffy]

Thanks for the info SWIforthesevenlakes, but before he said that, SWIdr gave some gabapentin/opiate trials a try. He combined on two separate occasions:

1. On his first experience he used hydrocodone 30 mg, and gabapentin 800 mg. The experience seemed a little more opiate-like (but that could be psycosemetic (placebo) than usual and more analgesia. NOTE-SWIdr had lower back ache and a very bad head ache before and it solved the trick, but hydro could probably do that alone.

2. On his second combo experience he took 20 mg oxycodone and 1200 mg gabapentin. The experience was basically same as the first. SWIdr felt slightly stimulated though, and had very strange food cravings (he did not smoke marijuana). The experience seemed stronger and lasted longer, but of course it could have been placebo, (but SWIdr usually knows if a drug is working and when it is placebo effects).

Conclusion: Gabapentin can add a little bit to opiate experiences, but not much. It would be better to drink some grapefruit juice and or combine a benzo (NOTE: SWIdr is not condoning the combo of more than one CNS depressant, as they can be very dangerous!).

[thegoodfight]

Originally Posted by DrMuffy

2. On his second combo experience he took 20 mg oxycodone and 1200 mg gabapentin. The experience was basically same as the first. SWIdr felt slightly stimulated though, and had very strange food cravings (he did not smoke marijuana). The experience seemed stronger and lasted longer, but of course it could have been placebo, (but SWIdr usually knows if a drug is working and when it is placebo effects).

Swim has done the same experiment. 20mg OC, the 600mg Gabapentin and then another 600mg 2 hours later. SWIM had the munchies like swim had jus smoked a few bowls of some prime MJ. This combo did seem to make Swim a little wired, euphoric and somewhat drunk. Overall a good feeling.

The next time, swim added 600mg Lyrica to the mix. 20mg OC, 600mgGabaPentin & 300 Mg Lyrica and the same 2 hours later (no more OC though). This gave amplified effects of the prior experience. Swim thinks it is somewhat like a coke/weed/alcohol feeling that also eliminated body pain. Pretty darn good feeling, just wish there were no munchies

One thing swim will say is that there is a pretty bad hangover from the lyrica and gabapentin. It fells like swiy has had a rough night boozing, not fun, but a little gabaP or lyrica takes that away. So if SWIY plans on trying this, swim suggests keep 300mg GabaP and 225-300mg Lyrica for a dose the next day.

[monkeygone2heaven]

oh my oh my... first of all, swim is not above it but remember you are not supposed to drink with gabapentin.

swim has taken gabapentin alone and with opiates -- but she has been prescribed these meds for a chronic nerve pain condition and this makes a huge difference.

gabapentin (and other anticonvulsants prescribed for neuropathic pain) do not act on opiate receptors and unless you have a neuropathy (pathology in your nervous system) they will not lead to any pain relief. think about SSRI antidepressants - they can help depressed patients but they don't make healthy people euphoric. same logic applies.

in fact these drugs work only on a small percentage of pain patients to begin with...

therefore unless you are a pain patient of a specific sort, do not expect "pain relief" or "opiate-like" effects from gabapentin. they're not similar at all. if you think you felt opiate like effects from gabapentin, it's probably just placebo.

what you can experience on gabapentin are a variety of lovely (side) effects like lethargy, mental slowing (commercial name: neurontin, doctors call it: morontin), paresthesias, taste changes, and my favorite: you WILL gain weight on gabapentin believe me... if you want to suffer needless side effects of anticonvulsants, you may want to try topiramate - at least you'll stay thin or lose weight. http://www.crazymeds.org/topamax.html

for gabapentin on the same site: http://www.crazymeds.org/neurontin.html

one final thing, anticonvulsants are notoriously hard on the kidneys. drink loads of water and refrain from regular use.

one would have to pay swim a lot of money to take gabapentin rather than the other way around so hard to believe there are people who willingly take the dumbifying, zombifying evil bugger and presumably pay for it! but to each their own... ;-)

[thegoodfight]

^SwiMonkey - Swim meant a "hangover" from the gabapentin and lyrica. No alcohol was involved. The next day felt like an alcohol "hangover"

Also, swim has nerver damage, so that explains the pain releif.

Finally swim doesn't think gabapentin is for him anymore than 4g a day of acetominiphen is.

[cckatie45]

Swim has a spinal cord injury and never takes gabepenton alone...it is alwayes takes w/oxicodone and YES it does boost the effect of pain relief.

[monkeygone2heaven]

Originally Posted by cckatie45

Swim has a spinal cord injury and never takes gabepenton alone...it is alwayes takes w/oxicodone and YES it does boost the effect of pain relief.

for nerve pain gabapentin and similar drugs have been quite successful. they don't work for everyone but when they do, their effect is significant.

swim is glad to hear gabapentin and oxycodone combination helps with your pain relief.

[gmeziscool2354]

dude, i have my pill bottle right here and the the precautions it doesn't say anything about alcohol. I don't know if that means its safe to mix that seems like confirmation to me