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The majority of gabapentin fatalities are caused by it being used in conjunction with another drug. Taking other medications (or illicit drugs) significantly increases their likelihood of experiencing negative reactions. While this is fairly low compared to other drugs, the nature of how this medication is typically prescribed (to be taken multiple times a day) means that prescribed users will always have a certain amount of gabapentin in their body at all times. Since it takes at least five half-lives to be eliminated from your system, it can take 2 days or longer to clear from your body. Gabapentin has a moderate half-life ranging from 5-7 hours. For this reason, it’s very important to monitor the timing when it’s taken and is typically recommended to be done every 8 or 12 hours. This medication performs best when it’s kept at a constant level in the body. The typical gabapentin dosage is 300 mg, with a daily maximum ranging from 100 mg to 3,600 mg (may vary depending on the condition it is treating). Unlike highly-addictive opioid analgesics, gabapentin has little risk of resulting in adverse effects when taken as prescribed. The medical community has also failed to keep up with recreational gabapentin abuse to determine whether lack of a medical need increases or lowers the possibility of toxic buildup from this drug. The maximum dosage is largely based on the nature of the medical condition it’s used to treat and a person’s age. This functionality has made gabapentin a popular target for abuse, but also significantly contributes to the risk that legitimate, prescribed users may experience an adverse reaction such as overdose when taking this medication.īecause gabapentin’s reputation is only recently being scrutinized, concrete guidelines as to how much gabapentin is too much, have yet to be determined. So while yes, relatively harmless on its own, when taken in conjunction with other drugs it can increase the intensity and duration of those highs as well as the likelihood of a lethal overdose. Gabapentin is an adjuvant, a drug that boosts the effects of other drugs. It’s not until the widespread proliferation of this medication that gabapentin’s darker side has come to light. That’s why up until recently, all indicators suggested that gabapentin was harmless. This has caused its harm potential to be underestimated by the medical community for decades, which in turn, caused it to be underestimated by regulating agencies. Its mechanism of use leaves little likelihood of it being addictive and it does not produce any meaningful sort of high (much less any feelings of euphoria). Gabapentin is not a controlled substance, nor is it included in the DEA’s drug scheduling classification.
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But how did the potential dangers of gabapentin fly under the radar for so long? The majority of which is due to its reputation for being a “safe” drug.
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Its versatile nature has led it to be used for everything from an antiepileptic to a painkiller. Gabapentin is one of the most widely prescribed medications in the United States. Now, this anti-seizure medication has begun to draw national attention as alarming new trends show rising instances of abuse and directly-related fatalities. What makes this possibility so shocking, however, is that since its creation in the 1980s, gabapentin was widely believed to be relatively harmless with no danger of misuse. As is the case with virtually any type of drug, yes, a gabapentin overdose is possible.