Straight from the DSM!!

[Guest [Or...]]

So I went to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistics Manual) that psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness. Specifically, I wanted to look up benzo withdrawal. I found a unique section that stood out to me:

 

Melatonin and anticonvulsants, particularly carbamazepine, gabapentin, topiramate and possibly pregabalin, are also helpful for withdrawal by reversing kindling and improving comorbid psychiatric symptoms (Vissers, Knipschild & Crebolder, 2007; Bobes, Rubio, Terián, Cervera, López-Gómez & Vilardaga, 2012).

 

So it seems like kindling can be reversed. :0 That's kinda cool.

 

This was the website I used:

http://www.theravive.com/therapedia/Sedative,Hypnotic-and-Anxiolytic-Use-Disorder-DSM--5-304.1-%28F13.1%29

 

A lot of the info may be incorrect. However, I remember reading one ladies story...in the success boards. She suffered for 10 months, went to the hospital. Claimed they could cure her. Gave her 7 weeks of varying doses of gabapentin. Voila. She was cured. But a lot of people were offended. But maybe there is something to it?

[[be...]]

That's very interesting. I remember when I went into C/T detox and chief of the department handed out 2,000 mg of gabapentin and 150 mg of Trazodone to every benzo detoxer.

[Guest [Or...]]

A lot of the people that used gabapentin early on also did well later. BRC, Badsocref...Roberto. Even though it was paradoxical. Even LuigiThePug used it and healed fastish. Hm.

[[Th...]]

I don't know how i would have done this without gabapentin.  It has been a godsend.

[[Ch...]]

I copied the pertinent paragraph.  It is very interesting.  This is the first I've ever heard of 'reversing kindling'.

 

Withdrawal can be prevented by tapering doses of benzodiazepines or phenobarbital; it is recommended to convert the current dose of a short-acting benzodiazepine to the equivalent dose of longer-acting diazepam and then decrease the dose in 2-week decrements to 75, 50, 25, 12.5 and 0 per cent of that. Melatonin and anticonvulsants, particularly carbamazepine, gabapentin, topiramate and possibly pregabalin, are also helpful for withdrawal by reversing kindling and improving comorbid psychiatric symptoms (Vissers, Knipschild & Crebolder, 2007; Bobes, Rubio, Terián, Cervera, López-Gómez & Vilardaga, 2012).

[Guest [Mi...]]

I spent 30 years looking for a reason for my iatrogenic (treatment-induced) insanity. Took every class of psych med plus many off-label drugs.

 

Here's one of the many problems with the DSM (I highlighted for emphasis):

 

"Of the 170 DSM panel members 95 (56%) had one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical industry. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on 'Mood Disorders' and 'Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders' had financial ties to drug companies. The leading categories of financial interest held by panel members were research funding (42%), consultancies (22%) and speakers bureau (16%). (Source: Financial Ties between DSM-IV panel members and the pharmaceutical industry.)

 

This is for the previous DSM. The current DSM V was even more entrenched with the pharmaceutical industry and more data will be coming out about that.

 

Be careful of quick fixes especially from people looking to profit. While these drugs may or may not be beneficial, there are only a handful of doctors that really understand how to get people off of them. For as many people who are doing well on drugs like Gabapentin, we have members painfully withdrawing from them.

 

It's not just the drugs; we also need doctors trained like Dr. Ashton. And we simply don't have them right now.

[Guest [Or...]]

I hear ya, Mindseeker. I'd have to read the study that that paragraph referenced. If you look up a user named Samantha and read her last post, it seems like the doctors tried this.

 

Now. Whether or not she was meant to heal at 11 months out anyway...we will never know. But still.

[[La...]]

Hi,

I came across this study regarding the use of gabapentin for benzodiazepine withdrawal, and it may provide some useful info for you:

 

https://ispub.com/IJPHARM/4/2/3283