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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