Gabapentin for
Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms

Gabapentin is the generic name for Neurontin. It’s an FDA approved medicine for controlling seizures in epileptics. For MS patients, gabapentin can control the pain symptoms caused by lesions associated with multiple sclerosis.

MS pain??

For a long time, I couldn’t understand what type of MS pain there could be. And I'll probably never fully understand it, but I can and do empathize. Cir tells me he has pain from time to time and many times it can be debilitating. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to several days. Or come and go for weeks.

He tells me of the burning, tingling, or ticklish, feelings he sometimes experiences. Every once in a while, he describes the pain as a dull ache. The tingling feeling is kind of like the prickly feeling you get when your foot goes numb. The blood comes rushing back all of a sudden after you stand up and it's difficult to walk.

I can’t imagine feeling that way all of the time. Not even for an extended length of time. I can handle it when I know I've laid on my arm too long. Or if I sat cross-legged then had to get up suddenly. I know it will be over soon. So yes, that feeling of prickliness would be painful if it lasted for long periods or at the very least, extremely uncomfortable.

Odd sensations and nerve damage

I’ve also been severely burned before, so that sensation would not be a welcome one either. Especially out of the blue or again for a long length of time. And depending on the degree of the burn, it can be very painful. One doctor explained that MS patients have odd sensations because of the damage done to their nerves.

When the nerve is damaged, the brain compensates by sending the wrong sensation to their brain at the wrong times. I know this is a bit oversimplified, but it sort of explains why you might experience these odd feelings at inappropriate moments.

Cir can just be sitting or walking along, and the burning sensation will just start in his feet or legs. If he's walking, he’ll have to stop and wait until it passes before he can continue on. And sometimes it goes on for a long length of time, like the other feelings mentioned earlier.

When Cir asked for something to deal with the pain, his doctor prescribed gabapentin. He was having the burning sensations in his legs – mostly his upper right thigh. The sensations just wouldn't go away.

No laughing matter

He would also experience a tickling feeling in his lower back. This used to be very aggravating for him. So much so that if I was in a playful mood and happened to tickle him in that area, he would get really upset. 

Most times he would try to “grin and bear” it as the saying goes. When the feelings and sensations wouldn't stop, he was definitely not in a grinning mood. These tickling and burning sensations cannot be scratched like an itch to make them go away. They seem to originate somewhere deep inside where superficial scratching doesn't do anything to help. 

Even scratching an itch is sometimes difficult for people with MS. If your arms and hands are weak or just don't work anymore, dealing with any type of pain can be difficult. Although he does have a few back scratchers for those types of itches.

Gabapentin addresses all, or at least most of these sensations. They can occur not just in your legs, but also in your arms. And there is another feeling that occurs in the torso as well. The “MS hug” is a tight squeezing, band-like sensation around your chest or mid-section. This medication can help with this, too.

Minimizing the side effects of gabapentin

Side effects. Yes, I guess I have to bring up this part, too. A drug is a drug and side effects are the reality for most of them. Fortunately, they should go away as your body gets used to the medication, hopefully over a period of weeks or a couple of months. For Cir, he would get sleepy - or loopy as he called it - whenever he took gabapentin. 

The doctor suggested a schedule to begin with which gradually increased the medication over a period of a few weeks. It was something like this. Cir would take one capsule 2 times a day for about 3 or 4 days. He would add another on the 5th day. So, eventually he would be taking one capsule 3 times a day for the next 3 to 4 days.

He would only increase the dosage until he had the desired effect. When the sensations stopped or got to a point where they were tolerable, then that would be the correct amount of medicine he needed to take to alleviate his symptoms.

No more twitching

One sensation which lessened when Cir took the gabapentin was the twitching or jumping in his legs at night. He usually doesn't feel the twitches because he is asleep. When I am awake lying next to him, I can sometimes feel them. And occasionally they would even wake me up, too, although rarely.

Sometimes he feels the twitching and jumping when he's just beginning to fall asleep. Those times will wake him up. He says it feels like stinging or itching. That can be aggravating when you are trying to fall asleep. And not getting enough rest doesn't help with your overall wellbeing either which I'm sure you can relate to at different times in your life.

The site, Multiple Sclerosis News Today, has another page about using this medication for MS. (Link opens in a new window).

Want to learn more about the Side Effects of Gabapentin? Follow the link.

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