www.incontinentsupport.org

I have bowel incontinence and I think I know what is causing it, but I am not sure. It comes and goes, but is only at night. I have alot of health issues and take many prescribed drugs. I take a drug called Gabapentin and I take it for diabetic neuropathy. There is no other drug that works like Gabapentin and my neuropathy is very severe and I have it in my feet and most recently my left hand. Has anyone ever heard of this drug causing incontinence? I have talked to my PCP and my pharmacist and they don't know of any connection. I have done alot of searching and I have come across some articles stating that it can cause this problem. For the most part, if I keep my usage to a certain amount at night, I don't have as many accidents. Unfortunately, the dosage of this medication that helps the most causes the most incontinence. I have tried to put up with the incontinence for the sake of being able to take my medications, but I have just about had enough of the shame that comes with every accident. I have ruined just about everything in my bedroom and I am constantly cleaning the carpet in my bedroom from leaks in my adult diapers. I purchase them online but they do not always help. I use cloth and paper disposable underpads and still ruin blanket after blanket. I am not able to wear any bottoms to any pajamas, if I want to keep them to wear in the house in the morning before I get dressed.

Should I continue to put up with this? Try and see if I can pin point the medication that is causing this? I have IBS-A and have had accidents but nothing to the degree that I have been putting up with. I almost hate going to bed at night, because I never know how big of a mess that I will have to clean up in the middle of the night.

I have talked to my doctor about this and he did alot of stool testing, everything was negative. I then had a colonoscopy and everything was clear.

I am open to all advice.

been their done that
find a good gasoenderolis
small amounts of codeine will help
or parapection
disposable will leak use cloth an ppants

but see a doc

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well ibs thats enought

Hi December,
I have been checking out some of the statistics for the medication Gabapentin (also called nuerotin) and it seems it definatly 'does' cause urinary and bowel incontinence in some people. and it also does cause mild incontinence problems to worsen.

I found duringthe short period of time that i took neurotin, that the incontinence problems that were still 'mid' enough did worsen, it also caused shakes for me that made doingthe most basic of things very difficult.

The thing that you have to ask yourself is, 'is the medication actually helping the problem which you are having with the nueropathy'?, if it is then the question is 'is it worth keeping taking it dispite it causing incontinence, would your other problem with neuropathy be awful to deal with witout the medication', if the medication is helping, helping enough that dealing with incontinence issues is better than dealing with the problems of neuopathy, then it is time to look at better ways of dealing with incontinence. such as more absorbent pads / diapers, as someone suggested, trying the cloth diaper and plastic pants for night time, have you asked you doctor to put you in touch with an incontinence advisor? if you havent, that would be my first suggestion, an advisor will be able to help you with finding a better product.

Incontinence is difficult to deal with i agree, there is shame and embasseresment dealing with accidents, but! with the right management, it truely is manageable and it isnt the worst thing in the world to deal with, even though it feels like it at the moment.

hopefully some of my post is of use to you
mike

Well, as a user of Gabapentin for neuropathy I can certainly agree with its effectiveness. There really isn't anything else as ordinary pain killers don't work. I have been using it for a while now an have no problems associated with it - I think. Certainly it hasn't caused problems with the bowels. I am without sensation in the lower part of my body due to MS by the way.

I manage my bowels by being careful and listening - wind usually comes first giving me time to act. If I eat the wrong things, though, it can just go wrong - badly wrong.

I think the way to deal with misbehaving bowels is to consider a regime to empty them at regular intervals. The best device I have seen for this is marketed by Coloplast and consists of an anal catheter, with balloon to hold it in place, and the tubing to allow water to be introduced. reports suggests it is effective in emptying the large bowel and that ought to give a clear night's sleep without leakage.

Other than that, I would say it is a matter of working out if there is some food which causes more problems and try to avoid it. Onions, baked beans and the like can cause problem for example. Try excluding some things for the diet and see if that improves things.

Thanks for the info Mike! Nice to meet you. Hmmm..my neuropathy is pretty severe and the only other thing that helps is Oxycodone. It is a very potent pain killer and it is very addictive and I would rather not go that way. I have been living with neuropathy since September 2009 and the shocks and shooting pain will make you want to try and deal with the incontinence, sometimes I didn't know that there were professionals who deal only with incontinence, I will try and see if I can find someone and perhaps they can help me find better products that can help me keep my fuzzy blankets clean and perhaps I could actually wear pajama bottoms to bed at night. Your post was very helpful!

I know all about eating the wrong thing...*ugh* I am going to look into the anal catheter, I agree that emptying the large bowel could really be a big help. Thanks for the tip!

I've been taking Gabapentin for diabetic neuropathy for several years. I haven't noticed any bowel issues from the drug, but I think my bladder is better behaved as a result of taking it. I was having severe shooting pains in my legs moving to my bladder. My bladder would bounce around by itself, not necessarily immediately causing the damn to burst, but there was some cause and affect there. Once I started Gabapentin, the shooting pains and bladder bouncing mostly stopped. I still have incontinence problems but now I'm an occasional sufferer, not constant. For reasons that the urologist and neurologist can't figure out, my bladder has a mind of it's own periodically. It usually begins with a night accident, followed by days of limited control. But generally, I'm able to manage life with frequent bathroom visits. Before Gabapentin, I was totally incontinent. So this is the first I've heard of the Gabapentin causing incontinence issues. Right now, I'm in diapers again, but I hope this will go away soon.

Well, that is good that the gabapentin is helping. I also suffer from periods where I have no incontinence at all. Medication is such a mystery at times.

Like many here I also take Gabapentin, and it seem to work pretty good for me. I am bladder, and bowel incon due to nerve damage so I take gabapentin, Baclofen, and Diclofenac for nerve meds. I've never heard that Gabapentin can cause incontinence.

That's an interesting way to put it. I guess in some ways it is true. When I am having my bouts of incontinence, I wear protection, but I try to stop once I regain control. I've been fooled before and had a sudden flood when I wasn't expecting it. The continual uncertainty of my bladder does make for anxious times, but I'd rather chance an accident than wear diapers 24/7 (been there done that), at least as long as I can. I think the frequency of incontinence periods is increasing, so I'm getting a new appointment with my urologist. My PCP is worrying about my kidneys now, so I now get to see a Nephrologist now. Boy, I hate all this. Life was good before all this diabetes crap happened (I guess it was probably my fault). I don't want to go back to diapers 24/7 again. But I was glad I had a night diaper on last week when I had a sudden bowel attach.