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How did an anti-seizure medication for humans end up making arthritis, anxiety and pain management for our dogs even worse than the initial problem?
Because it is … and not enough people are aware of it or talking about it.
The following experience has been shared with us by Kate O’Brien, a certified canine nutritionist.
“I occasionally see my neighbors out on my morning walks with my own pups.
To my left lives my neighbor Mark and his 12-year-old black Lab named Duncan.
They easily did a few miles a day and it was remarkable how quickly Duncan would complete his walk.
However Mark said that Duncan was slower to get up now and that he had gone to his Vet about 6 months ago for something to help with his arthritic pain.
On this particular morning, Duncan was being held up by a sling and he seemed very wobbly on his legs, almost as if he were drunk.
As I approached Mark to see if I could assist, Duncan was panting heavily and fell backwards onto his back legs.
I was stunned. I’m a snowbird so I had been out of town for all of Spring and Summer.
But what on earth transpired in just those few months to cause Duncan to go downhill so quickly.
He didn’t even recognize me as I approached his owner.
It was as if I was looking into the eyes of a shell of the once lively and energetic dog that lived next door to me.
Mark was beside himself with tears welling up in his eyes. He asked if I could be of assistance to him.
Going inside with Mark and Duncan, we went through everything that Duncan was eating, including any medications he was on.
I brought over some raw food to get him off of his kibble and onto something more nutritious. I give him some sardines, reishi mushrooms, green lipped mussels and CBD oil to lower his arthritic inflammation.
We then examined what the Vet prescribed for Duncan’s arthritis.
It was a pill called Gabapentin.
Duncan had it prescribed to him just 6 months prior.
I asked Mark if he felt the wobbling and the difficulty walking may have come on around the same timeframe.
Mark said, yes. Duncan has only been on it for about the full 6 months and during that time, he had watched Duncan go downhill.
I said ok, well let’s try the items that I gave you for arthritis and let’s stop the Gabapentin and see if maybe these are just side effects, and they dissipate with time as not every dog reacts well to certain medications.
To be clear I had never heard of Gabapentin before, and I had not yet looked up the side effects.
I should’ve done that first as Gabapentin has to be slowly weaned off … but even then, in my gut, I knew it was this pill and I was anxious about how much longer this dog could endure these side effects before one or more became irreversible.
Even Duncan’s breathing was labored which greatly alarmed me.
I gave my suggestions, but I never pressure anyone until they weigh the information. Mark did just that and he dumped the Gabapentin in the trash that same day.
Over the next few months, we watched Duncan completely restore back to the way he was with the exception of taking shorter walks.
But he never fell over on his back legs again, or stared into space not knowing where he was.
He was also never wobbly again on his legs when walking and his breathing returned to normal.
Granted we had implemented a brand-new diet with arthritic supplements … but the diet change was not complete prior to the end of these symptoms.
The only thing that had changed as rapidly as the disappearance of the symptoms was the tossing away of the Gabapentin.
The sardines worked wonders for Duncan. His coat had been flaky and within 3 weeks on them, he was sleek and shiny.
The CBD oil was working for him in terms of pain relief and Mark gave him extra on rainy days when he could see Duncan was having that initial trouble getting off the floor to go for his walk.
The change to a raw food diet resulted in a much better stool for Duncan instead of the runny stool he had on Kibble.
Overall, Duncan was completely back to his old self but an improved version.
Mark never went back to that Vet and I shudder to think what would’ve happened to Duncan had he stayed on Gabapentin for a prolonged period of time.”
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN … AND AGAIN
“Fast forward … I am at my Vets office for a walk in Heartworm test.
It is one of the rare times that I use a veterinarian, but I do a walk in at least once every 6 months for this quick test so that I don’t have to feed my dogs pesticides.
As I am sitting there waiting for a Vet tech to become available, a woman leaves the examination room with her large Shepherd, and he is wobbly and falling on his back legs.
She has a sling on him and it is so reminiscent of Mark and Duncan that I cannot help but wonder …
I didn’t wonder for very long because as she is checking out, the cashier asks her if she will also need a refill on her dogs prescription of Gabapentin.
I go home stunned and don’t even know what to think. I mean it could’ve been a coincidence but after my third experience, I am even more convinced that this should never be given to a dog especially with all of the safer alternatives out there.
Number three was another neighbor further down the street from me.
She has a rescue pup from the Puerto Rico hurricane.
Max is a relatively healthy and young pup around the age of 7.
His owner Susan comes up to me on her morning jog and commented on how healthy my pups look.
I ask her how her dog is doing, and Susan says she is baffled because her dog is showing signs of what her Vet told her is canine dementia.
I tell her how sorry I am to hear that and ask if this is why Max isn’t on her walk with her. They are normally inseparable.
Susan tells me he is under the weather and just didn’t have the energy to walk.
I go home to get her some supplements and healthy foods for Max and take them to her home.
Upon entering Sue’s house, I see Max on his bed. He is panting heavy and seems unaware that I had even entered the house.
This was so unlike Max as he is normally quite the exceptional guard dog.
Susan was trying to coax him to come over to her, and that’s when I saw it.
The fall backwards onto the hind legs …. thinking to myself … can it be what I am hoping it isn’t?
I ask her if she had any meds prescribed to him recently and before I even finished my sentence, she had already retrieved a bottle of Gabapentin from her kitchen.
I asked her why it was prescribed, and she said because Max has severe anxiety with storms from his living through a major hurricane.
So now this pill is being given for anxiety too? Yet as you will learn below, it is not FDA approved for any of these ailments.
I tell her to call Mark and ask him the side effects he saw in Duncan and to compare them with Max and that she may want to start weaning Max off of the Gabapentin.
I then went home to get her pup some calming paste with Valerian root for his anxiety so that she understood that there were far safer options to deal with Max’s fear of storms.
After speaking with Mark, Susan decided to take Max off of the Gabapentin slowly because he had been on it for over 9 months … and slowly, Max became himself again.
He wanted to eat again, he could walk again and he was alert again.
To me, the connection was unmistakable, but this was not a science experiment where I have any actual data to prove my hypothesis.
My opinion is based solely on real-life experiences that I personally had when encountering canines who were prescribed Gabapentin.
Not to mention that over the years, I have now seen countless dogs on Gabapentin, and they all have difficulty breathing and walking and they all look drunk and fatigued.
I can only tell you what I saw and what the end results were.
I encourage everyone to do their own research on any medication before administering it to their pet.
There is ALWAYS a better and safer way to tackle our pet’s health issues.
Having said that, there is actual documented written proof that this drug has no place in your dog’s body and its usage can cause great harm to your pet.
If you take a look at the articles below, you will see that coordination problems, breathing problems and memory loss are common side effects in humans taking Gabapentin.
I for one don’t think that any so called “cure” should be a million times worse than the initial problem.
Vets are handing out these pills like candy and no one is questioning why or how a human anti-seizure medication ended up in Veterinarian offices all across the Country.
Due to the side effects in humans, Gabapentin abuse resulted in the largest class action lawsuit in US history.
It was never FDA approved for usage in canines and there have been zero studies on the side effects of this drug on dogs.
Yet Veterinarians everywhere are giving this to unsuspecting pet parents off label in order to sidestep any type of approval.
The real kicker … there is zero evidence that Gabapentin actually works at all as a pain reliever.
So how did it end up in your dog’s medicine cabinet?
Here are just a handful of the articles I found online when researching Gabapentin.
I am pretty sure that if this information were given to each and every pet parent at checkout, they would give it a second thought.
My motto is question EVERYTHING.
Never take home any prescribed medication for your pet until you have had the time to go home and research it thoroughly.
You cannot make an educated decision unless you are armed with knowledge.
Your Vets job is to make their business profitable.
I am not saying that they do not have your best interests at heart because I honestly think most Vets actually do care about their patients.
But they are often times dealing with limited information themselves.
The bottom line is that you are solely your pet’s advocate. Their safety and well-being starts and ends with you.
Only you can truly protect them. A little bit of research goes a long way in keeping your fur baby safe from harm.”
THE HISTORY OF GABAPENTIN
Pfizer pleads guilty, but drug sales continue to soar – PMC (nih.gov)
‘Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, pleaded guilty on 13 May to numerous civil and criminal charges for illegally promoting the off-label use of gabapentin (Neurontin). It has agreed to pay a $240m (£136m; €200m) criminal fine and $152m to state and federal healthcare programmes. The fine is the second largest given in the industry.’
Meanwhile, off-label sales of gabapentin continue to soar, despite evidence that the drug is not effective for some of the problems it is used to treat.
David Franklin, 42, a microbiologist and former Harvard research fellow who worked as a “medical liaison” expert for Warner-Lambert before it was bought by Pfizer in 2002, filed a whistleblower suit under the False Claims Act in 1996, charging the company with using “fraudulent scientific evidence” to promote off-label uses of gabapentin.
Dr Franklin’s suit detailed how the company suppressed study results, planted people in medical audiences to ask questions intended to put gabapentin in a good light, lavished perks on doctors, used ghostwriters, gave generous “consultation fees” to “thought leaders,” and used psychological profiling of doctors in its successful bid to move gabapentin to so called blockbuster status (annual sales in excess of $1bn) Dr Franklin said that off-label uses accounted for more than 90% of the drug’s $2.7bn sales worldwide last year.
Dr Matthew Keats, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Eastern Virginia Medical School, agrees, citing the case of a 16-year-old man who committed suicide in May 2002 while taking gabapentin. “The shocking aspect of the story is that the manufacturer funded a study and knew as early as 1998 that Neurontin didn’t work in bipolar disorder. But they didn’t publish the results until two years later. Yet we still see it prescribed for bipolar disorder.”
As part of the settlement agreement, Dr Franklin will receive $24.6m under whistleblowing legislation.
The settlement is not a major setback for Pfizer, whose worldwide sales of gabapentin rose from $1.3bn in 2000 to $2.7bn in 2003.
The company’s promotional efforts, Dr Franklin said, were “profoundly effective.” He added, “A huge majority of people taking [gabapentin] now are taking it for the wrong reasons.”
Pfizer adds another $325M to Neurontin settlement tally. Total? $945M | Fierce Pharma
“It’s Pfizer’s second round of off-label Neurontin settlements: In 2004, the company shelled out $430 million in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. The drugmaker’s Warner-Lambert unit pleaded guilty to two violations of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and paid civil and criminal penalties for promoting the drug, known generically as gabapentin, as a treatment for bipolar disorder, ADHD, migraine headaches and other types of pain.
That $325 million may seem like a substantial amount of money, but the payers–which include Louisiana Blue Cross/Blue Shield–had claimed “billions of dollars” in damages from off-label Neurontin use. The company marketed Neurontin “for a variety of uses for which it is not approved or medically efficacious,” the lawsuit claimed (as quoted by Bloomberg).”
Gabapentin & Pregabalin Linked to Breathing Problems, Possible Lawsuits (drugwatch.com)
“A pair of popular drugs used to treat a wide range of common conditions could put people with certain respiratory conditions at risk of serious breathing problems, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Gabapentin and pregabalin are prescribed to treat a range of conditions including pain and seizures. Gabapentin is marketed as Neurontin, Gralise and Horizant and is also available as a generic. Pregabalin is sold under the brand name Lyrica and Lyrica CR.
The FDA ordered new warnings of breathing risks on labels for gabapentin and pregabalin in December 2019. The agency is also requiring manufacturers to begin clinical trials to gauge the potential for abuse with the drugs.
With 64 million prescriptions written for it in 2016, gabapentin was the 10th most widely prescribed drug in the United States that year, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The FDA reviewed multiple studies about the drugs’ effects on breathing. One study found that gabapentin alone caused longer pauses between breaths while people slept.”
“The Neurontin class action lawsuit alleged the defendants violated the law by promoting Neurontin for various uses that were not approved by the US FDA. According to the class action lawsuit, Neurontin was approved by the FDA as an adjunctive therapy for adult epilepsy and for the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia. However, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants marketed the drug for several off-label uses by making false or misleading statements to physicians and in medical publications.
This drug has been prescribed freely by doctors all over the world, often without a thought for the addictions that it might cause and the Gabapentin withdrawals that might be triggered thereafter.
It has been handed out in large doses and for long periods, and only now are doctors the world over waking up to the issues caused by Gabapentin addiction and by Gabapentin withdrawal.
The human body excretes Gabapentin via the kidney interestingly enough, unchanged. Drinking water or other liquids and the urine pH affect the elimination of the drug. However, as mentioned above, it takes around two days for Gabapentin to leave the system.
Its use for bipolar disorder is considered “off label,” meaning that it is not FDA approved for use.
Neurontin Drug Neurontin Information Neurontin is not your traditional anxiety treatment.
Evidence Not Conclusive Despite the findings of several studies supporting the potential of Neurontin as a treatment for anxiety and the available anecdotal information, there is not yet enough evidence to determine conclusively that the drug is an effective treatment choice for anxiety currently.
The term analog simply means that the Gabapentin molecules will structurally look very similar to the GABA neurotransmitter. Neurontin has a host of side effects, several of which were powerful enough to cause lawsuits to be filed against the manufacturer. Therefore, causing pain that not only impairs walking but can be quite extreme in severity.”
Pfizer to pay $325 million in Neurontin settlement | Reuters
(Reuters) – “Pfizer Inc has agreed to pay $325 million to resolve claims it defrauded insurers and other healthcare benefit providers by marketing Neurontin for unapproved uses, its second settlement over the epilepsy drug in six weeks.”
Public Citizen Calls For Gabapentin To Be Classified As a Controlled Substance – AboutLawsuits.com
Gabapentin and Memory Loss Lawsuit: What You Need to Know (naomedical.com)
- Updated on June 3, 2023
“Recently, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the medication gabapentin and its potential link to memory loss. In fact, there is currently a lawsuit against the drug’s manufacturer, alleging that they failed to warn patients about this potential side effect.
Memory loss is just one of the many side effects that have been reported with gabapentin use. Other side effects include dizziness, drowsiness, and coordination problems.”
By 2019, gabapentin became the seventh most prescribed drug in America.
Link to overdose deaths
“According to a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), postmortem toxicology tests found gabapentin in nearly 10% of all overdose deaths in the United States in 2019–2020. In half of those cases, gabapentin was identified as the drug that was a cause of death.”
