Precautions:

• Gabapentin may cause dizziness, somnolence and other symptoms and signs of CNS depression. Do not drive a car or operate other complex machinery until you have gained sufficient experience on gabapentin to gauge whether or not it affects your mental and/or motor performance adversely.
• Avoid alcohol during treatment with gabapentin. Alcohol may increase the risk of having side effects while taking gabapentin.
• Do not stop taking your medication even if you feel better. It is important to continue taking gabapentin to prevent your seizures from recurring. Even if you are not being treated for a seizure disorder, abruptly discontinuing this medication can cause you to have seizures.
• Carry or wear a medical identification tag to let others know that you are taking this medicine in the case of an emergency.

Pregnancy and Breastfeeding:

• FDA pregnancy category C. This means that it is not known whether gabapentin will be harmful to an unborn baby. Do not take gabapentin without first talking to your doctor if you are pregnant or could become pregnant during treatment.
• Gabapentin passes into breast milk. Do not take gabapentin without first talking to your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.

Other medical conditions:
Be sure to tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:

• Kidney disease: Higher blood levels of gabapentin may occur, which may increase the chance of unwanted effects; your doctor may need to change your dosage.

Other medications:
Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. When you are taking gabapentin, it is especially important that your health care professional know if you are taking any of the following:

• Antacids (e.g., Maalox)—Lower blood levels of gabapentin may occur, so gabapentin may not work properly; gabapentin should be taken at least 2 hours after any antacid is taken.

Potential side effects:
Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention. One rare, but very serious, effect that may occur is the serotonin syndrome. This syndrome (group of symptoms) is more likely to occur shortly after an increase in citalopram dose.

Check with your doctor as soon as possible if any of the following side effects occur:

• More common: Clumsiness or unsteadiness; continuous, uncontrolled, back-and-forth and/or rolling eye movements
• More common in patients 3 to 12 years of age: Aggressive behaviors or other behavior problems; anxiety; concentration problems and change in school performance; crying; false sense of well-being; hyperactivity or increase in body movements; mental depression; reacting too quickly, too emotionally, or overreacting; rapidly changing moods; restlessness; suspiciousness or distrust
• Less common: Depression, irritability, or other mood or mental changes; loss of memory
• Rare: Cough or hoarseness; fever or chills; lower back or side pain; painful or difficult urination

Other side effects may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. However, check with your doctor if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome:

• More common: Blurred or double vision; dizziness; drowsiness; muscle ache or pain; swelling of hands, feet, or lower legs; trembling or shaking; unusual tiredness or weakness
• Less common: Back pain; constipation; decrease in sexual desire or ability; diarrhea; dryness of mouth or throat; frequent urination; headache; indigestion; low blood pressure; nausea; noise in ears; runny nose; slurred speech; trouble in sleeping; trouble in thinking; twitching; vomiting; weakness or loss of strength; weight gain

Brand Names:

• U.S., Canada, Australia, and UK: Neurontin

Additional Information:

• Neurontin: Good Medicine or Bad News?
• FDA approved prescribing information (requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader)