Supplements and Gabapentin.
Gabapentin, sold under the brand name Neurontin, is an antiepileptic drug. Several agents in this class are strong CYP inducers or inhibitors.
Gabapentin is an antiepileptic medicine. The class is heterogeneous. Enzyme inducers (carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital) drop plasma levels of many medicines given alongside. Enzyme inhibitors (valproate) raise them. The newer agents (levetiracetam, lacosamide) have quieter interaction profiles. The supplement interactions of greatest clinical importance. St John's Wort is excluded with the inducer antiepileptics on top of an already complex CYP picture. Folate at high doses competes with the folate depletion that antiepileptics drive, in a way that needs neurology team input rather than community pharmacy. Calcium and vitamin D status matter because inducer antiepileptics drive bone density loss over years; the SANAD bone substudy data is the relevant evidence base. Pregnancy planning on an antiepileptic regimen always runs through the neurology team, because of folate timing and the teratogenicity profile specific to each agent (valproate carries the highest, levetiracetam much lower).
Below are the 3 documented pairs we have explicitly assessed against Gabapentin in the Distil database: 3 amber. The pairs cluster around 1 mechanism: Mineral chelation (absorption). Every call is cited to either a clinical reference (PMID) or the British National Formulary. Anything not on this list is either still to be assessed or beyond our database scope. The checker beneath surfaces assessments by supplement, and the missing-item form at the bottom of the page routes any uncatalogued supplement into our next curation pass.
Documented interactions
Mineral chelation (absorption)
Taking magnesium at the same time as gabapentin can lower how much gabapentin your body absorbs, which may make it work less well. Take gabapentin at least two hours apart from any magnesium supplement, and keep the timing consistent day to day.
Taking magnesium at the same time as gabapentin can lower how much gabapentin your body absorbs, which may make it work less well. Take gabapentin at least two hours apart from any magnesium supplement, and keep the timing consistent day to day.
Taking magnesium at the same time as gabapentin can lower how much gabapentin your body absorbs, which may make it work less well. Magnesium L-threonate is still elemental magnesium, so the same effect applies. Take gabapentin at least two hours apart from any magnesium supplement, and keep the timing consistent day to day.
What this list does not say. Pairs not flagged here are not implicitly safe. They are either not yet in our database, or fall outside our inclusion scope (food-supplement interactions only; for drug-drug interactions, the BNF is authoritative). Use the checker below to surface any supplement, and submit a missing item if you take something we have not catalogued.
How we grade severity, choose what's in scope, and what we exclude.
Every call on this page is reasoned. We publish the full rubric for severity tiers, the medication inclusion logic, the evidence grades we accept, and what we deliberately leave out. About three thousand words. Worth reading once if you use this tool more than occasionally.
Read the full methodologyWant this checked across everything you take?
This page checks the pairs you enter. The personalised Distil report goes further:
- the same graded, cited interaction check across your whole stack, not just the pairs you thought to type in
- where your current routine may be leaving you short of your goals
- the evidence-backed compounds worth adding, and the ones worth dropping
It's a paid report: £79, or £49 for the first 25 customers. The interactions check is one section of it, and you can read a real one in full before you buy.
See a real sample reportSomething missing?
If a supplement or medication you take isn't in our autocomplete, tell us. We go through what people flag every week and add what's missing.