What are the disadvantages of gabapentin?
As gabapentin has only been available for a relatively short time, it was first marketed in 1990, there is no information about long term side-effects. As its use with people with mood disorders started even more recently, it is not known if people who initially do well on gabapentin continue to do so after many years of treatment. The short half-life of gabapentin makes it necessary for it to be taken in divided doses over the course of the day. Similar to other drugs that have the ability to reduce depression, gabapentin can induce mania in some people with bipolar disorder. It has been hard to demonstrate in controlled studies the effectiveness of gabapentin as a mood control agent.
As gabapentin has only been available for a relatively short time, it was first marketed in 1990, there is no information about long term side-effects. As its use with people with mood disorders started even more recently, it is not known if people who initially do well on gabapentin continue to do so after many years of treatment. The short half-life of gabapentin makes it necessary for it to be taken in divided doses over the course of the day. Similar to other drugs that have the ability to reduce depression, gabapentin can induce mania in some people with bipolar disorder. 28. Why should physicians prescribe, and patients take, gabapentin, when there are mood regulating medications that have been available for many years and which have been shown to be effective in double-blind placebo-controlled studies? There are two major reasons why physicians prescribe and patients take gabapentin rather than conventional, better established drugs. They are that not everyone benefits from trea
