Interesting drug. My sister uses it (very successfully) for
the pain from her chronic form of Guillain-barre. We use it
psychiatrically as a mood stabilizer. Good to hear Nancy is
doing better.                Carole

--- ROBERT A MARTONE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Nancy Martone Update  - use of Gabapentin
>
> We just wanted to share the latest update on Nancy's
> overall
> condition. Nancy will be 55 soon. This is her 25th year
> of
> overcoming as many PD obstacles as she can. Right now she
> is
> doing the best she has done in the last 2 years. After a
> significant deline this summer, Nancy has rebounded once
> again.
>
>  Why?  While with PD no single solution seems to solve
> all
> the PD problems, occasionally something works that really
> improves the quality of life. We seem to have stumbled on
> one of those again.  After learning that Nancy has
> developed
> a hypothyroid condition, .075 mg of synthroid were added
> to
> her daily diet of meds.
> This seemed to make her feel better but did not seem to
> improve her PD symptoms. About six months ago we added
> 400mg
> per day of Amantadine back to her med schedule and her
> sinemet started working better again. (Starting and
> stopping
> amantadine, through careful titration, over the last 10
> years has always yielded measurable improvement in all of
> Nancy's PD symptoms when she restarted the amantadine).
>
> This time however we received little benefit for her now
> very pronounced stooped posture and the attendant hip
> pain.
> After trying a variety of pain relievers Nancy's neuro
> suggested we try Neurontin for the back pain. She started
> with 1200 mg and started to sleep a lot; day and night.
> Since there were no other side effects, she was raised to
> 2400 mg. Today she is taking 3600 mg with no side
> effects.
>
> The beneficial results now are impressive. The hip pain
> is
> being managed with a few Ibprofen. She is alert all day
> long
> her speech is stronger and less slurred, and she is
> sleeping
> all night long. The benefits of her 1995 bilateral
> pallidotomies (actually two unilateral pal's) continue.
> She
> has virtually no dyskinesia, minor tremor and minor
> rigidity
> in her extremities but still has major rigidity in her
> trunk. The benefit of being able to sleep all night long
> has
> been wonderful for both of us. Day time living is greatly
> improved. Nancy has started a bridge group that comes to
> our
> house and plays twice a month. There are PD and non-PD
> players.
>
> We are currently managing without a caregiver. I still do
> the cooking  and minor daily cleaning and then we get
> help
> on the weekends.
>
>
> Neurontin/Gabapentin in conjunction with Amantadine
>
> After obseving these benefits now for several months I
> started to do a little research on Neurontin/Gabapentin
> and
> Amantadine. It appears that both of these meds, Neurontin
> for sure, and Amantadine maybe, actually work on the
> brain's
> glutamate system and serve as a glutamate inhibitor.
> Glutamate inhibits dopamine at the receptor sites hence
> if
> you inhibit glutamate you enhance dopamine. We have
> reduced
> Nancy's sinemet intake by 20% or 200 mg with no ill
> effects.
>
> I would like to here from the lists guru's on the use of
> Gabapentin in the treatment of PD. I discovered that it
> is
> used for Lou Gehrigs disease  and focal epileptic
> seizures
> but haven't found any specific recommendations for its
> use
> with PD.
>
> I hope this is informative and look forward to a new
> thread
> on Neurontin generic form is Gabapentin.
>
> Bob Martone
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.kingwoodcable.com/martone/
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com