Experiences with Lyrica

[Bedshaped]

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member on this forum. I have been using the 'search'-function for some time now, reading up on peoples various reactions/senitivity to drugs. Over the past two years (roughly) both my GP and different specailists have suggested Lyrica to me.

My problem is that I have proved to be very sensitive to a lot of drugs, and my symptoms gets worse. As a result I have developed an extreme anxiety towards taking almost any drug I'm given.

Up until now I've forced myself to get by without medication, but my neuropathic pain have become really hard to cope with.

I do spend a lot of time reading this forum to see how other ME sufferers react to drugs, just to see what I might have 'in store' if I do take the drugs.

Anyway, as the thread title says I'm really looking for your experiences with Lyrica?
I have both the 25 mg and the 75 mg available.

Thank you for answering me, in advance

 

[ukxmrv]

I kept a diary of my trial of Lyrica. It made me feel very hyper and I overdid things and then crashed over and over again. That was on 25mg and I never could progress to the 75mg that my doctor wanted me to be on. In addition to the hyped feeling I also had sinus infection after sinus infection. Gave up after about 3 months I think.

 

[Old Bones]

@Bedshaped Welcome to the forum! My rheumatologist gave me couple of sample boxes of 25 mg Lyrica tablets to try, stating that if they worked for my neuropathic pain, I could ask my GP for a prescription. They did nothing for my pain, and left me feeling drugged and lethargic, even at this extremely low dose. I ended up using them as occasional sleep aids, they had such a sedating effect for me.

I recently mentioned this experience to an internal medicine specialist who diagnosed me with small fiber peripheral neuropathy. According to her, most patients find Amitriptyline (Elavil) more effective for neuropathic pain than Lyrica. I tried Elavil (1 mg compounded dose) several years ago for sleep disturbance. Again, the side effects were too severe to continue. Like you, I am extremely sensitive to medications. I've often wondered if this is due to the increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier found in ME patients.

With both medications, the side effects diminished rapidly and caused no lasting adverse effect. So, if your pain is severe, they may be worth trying -- one at a time, of course. Good luck. Neuropathic pain is miserable. I go to bed every night with cotton bags filled with flax seeds heated inside the microwave and placed in heavy fleece socks. Somehow, I find the hot pain easier to bear than the icy cold pain and overall irritation. This helps me to fall asleep. I've considered doing something similar for my hands. Unfortunately, the question remains . . . what to do during the daytime.

 

[Bedshaped]

Hello,

thank you both for taking your time to answer my post. My GP wants me to take Cipramil (Citalopram) 10 mg, and Valium 2,5 mg instead of Lyrica. I do feel depressed and have a lot of anxiety. My GP thinks my condition can improve if I can decrease my stress level and busy mind.

So here I am again, Cipramil scares the s*it out of me, and Valium is probably gonna space me out. Does anyone have any experience taking these two drugs?

 

[leokitten]

I’ve been taking gabapentin for ME symptoms at night occasionally as needed for years now. It seems to help numb my ME lower leg pain a bit and maybe helps with sleep, though really hard to tell as effects are very mild? I’ve been taking 600-1200 mg when needed.

I was thinking about changing to pregabalin since it’s generic since last year in the U.S. using this conversion https://ahpnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Admelog-May-2018.pdf

May I ask to those who’ve taken both, will pregabalin work better? I found gabapentin has zero withdrawal effects will pregabalin have any of you only take it as needed (not daily)?