Why would Lunesta work for fibromyalgia?

[Mya Symons]

My doctor prescribed me Lunesta for insomnia. I have been taking it off and on for a few months now. I notice that about a half an hour to an hour after I take it, I get good relief from my Fibromyalgia pain. I did a little bit of searching and found out that Lunesta works on the GABA receptors but no one is sure how. It's interesting that they have marketed a drug and they have little knowledge on how exactly it works.

Does anyone here have any ideas on why Lunesta would work for FMS pain? Nevertheless, it's not a very good choice for a pain medication because a person can't function while on it. However, maybe they could come up with a less "drug you till your passed out" version for fibromyalgia.

 

[adreno]

Pain involves firing of nerves - transmitting the pain signals - and GABA inhibits nerve firing.

Glutamate (sort of the opposite of GABA) is heavily involved in pain signaling.

It's possible that your glutamate/GABA balance could be better.

 

[barbc56]

@adreno

Sounds like you know much more than I do about chemistry. Is Lunesta related to Mirapix? Mirapix, which is often prescribed for RLS and at higher doses for Parkinson disease, has sometimes been tried for FM but the downside is the stomach side effects. If I remember correctly, it's not often prescribed for FM because of this.

I've taken Mirapix two times, each on a short term basis, while being treated for low ferritin levels until the problem resolved.. It really helped my RLS.

I think Mirapix has something to do with GABA?

Thanks!

Barb

 

[adreno]

No, mirapex is a dopamine agonist. Normal treatment for RLS.

 

[barbc56]

Got it! There goes that theory.

One of the reasons I thought they might be related is I mistakingly thought they shared some of the same side effects like binge/night eating which I actually had the second time I took Mirapex. It had never happened before nor again when I stopped it. Then I looked at the side effects of Lunasta and they were very very different.

Now I'm curious which drug I'm thinking of but remember there have been cases where people would actually do something like driving their car in the night and other bazaar behavior without remembering it the next day. I don't think these extreme with the Mirapex dosage for RLS other than the binge eating and have no idea if in larger dosages for Parkinsons.

A mystery I need to investigate!

Thanks.

Barb

Dopamine! Of course! How in the world I mixed up the two, I have no idea!

 

[chronicallyD]

nonbenzodiazepines like Lunesta can also have muscle relaxing effects as well as activation of inhibitory pathways involved in excitatory brain activity (e.g. wakefulness, alertness, pain signalling etc). Unfortunately this class of drugs is not effective in the long term and may eventually cause a worsening in the symptoms they are meant to improve.

edit: in simple terms, it make you more numb, but if used in the long term it will have the opposite effect