‘Neurontin Killed Our Husbands, We Believe’
Think akathisia can only happen to those taking antidepressants or other psychotropic medications? Unfortunately it’s time to widen our scope–akathisia can occur from other medications as well. Two doctors’ wives are now speaking out, six years after their husbands both took their lives while taking Neurontin, or Gabapentin, and suffering from akathisia. Neither the doctors nor their wives realized what was provoking personality changes and erratic behavior in their husbands, until it was too late. Both were taking the drug for back pain, an off-label use. Like MISSD, they are now trying to spread the word so others can be spared the same pain.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-rosenberg/pfizer-neurontin-suicide_b_875603.html
I’m very sorry to hear what happened to your husbands. I, too, believe I am suffering from akathisia from gabapentin given to me by South Oaks Hospital. I was never told why I was prescribed the medication and I was told it could help with sleep, anxiety, and akathisia. I had mild residual akathisa from a different medication at the time I was admitted to the hospital, but it was under control with benztropine, which the nurse discontinued. Shortly after tapering off the gabapentin (1,400 mg) in one week, I developed major anxiety and unrelenting body movements again, mostly in the legs. Also, the benztropine was no longer effective at .5 mg, so I began taking benzodiazepines to help control the anxiety and movements. The nurse practitioner who treated me was an impulsive idiot. I am still suffering on a daily basis thanks to the horrible doctors who treated me at local hospitals. Unfortunately, I know what it feels like to want to die from such a horrible condition.
I too suffer from bouts of akathisia and have done so for many years,l was used as a lab rat for doctors to experiment with many drugs,l did not realise that it was this condition until recently, l have had many attempts at suicide, some quite violent.Now l see these doctors as psychopathic monsters and try to avoid them.
I was put on gabapentin for migraines and within 10 days and suffered an attack of athekisia. I stopped immediately and the akathesia stopped but then I had horrific withdrawals from the gabapentin. It’s a horrible feeling and a horrible medication