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Lyrica..I have spent the last week as a new member to this site giving advice to people about stuff I have experience with. I was reading the newest post and the replies, and in one of the replies, the person said he had degenerative disc disease, phase 2 or some phase. I didnt even know there were phases of it. Anyways I too have it in my neck. 2or 3 of my discs are herniated, but the diagnosis on my last MRI is D.D.D. So this means my discs are basically rotting? Anyways I am only 29 and have been suffering with this pain for 3 years now. I was an opiate addict before I got hurt, and after I got hurt my addiction got a LOT worse, because I was getting the drugs legally. Though I would go thru a months script of Roxi 15's in about 3 days. Well since I am not seeing that doc anymore, and didnt see one for a few months, I decided to get help for my addiction, and got on the Methadone Maint. Program. Anyways my doc at this rehab center/ pain clinic just outside of Boston, gave me Lyrica for the nerve pain I have in my neck and arms. I googled the Lyrica and most of the sites said that it can be addictive, and cause w/d if abruptly stopped, and may cause drug seeking behavior. It sounds just like any opiate! Have any of you taken Lyrica, and if so how does it make u feel. Is it a feeling like opiates where you would "drug seek"? Because prior to the Lyrica he gave me Neurontin, and it didnt say any of that stuff about IT. The Neurontin made me too groggy in the a.m. so I told him I wont take it. Any info on this would be helpful. Thank U ( categories: Chronic Pain and Pain Management )
 I have taken Lyrica. It
I have taken Lyrica. It definitely did not make me feel like any opioid. furthermore, I really don't see how it is addicting nor how it would cause any abnormal drug-seeking behavior. However, as we all know, everyone is different so I guess this type of warning may be appropriate. I do agree that it should not be stopped abruptly (as is with most medications). There are many times when medications will have warnings that may seem out of place and I personally feel that this is one of those times. Lyrica is a C-V and shows little to no potential for abuse. It definitely did not feel like any type of opioid to me. The closest thing that I have had that I would compare it to would be Neurontin. As most medical professionals will tell, treating pain can be difficult for those whom have past histories of substance abuse. That said, if your doctor feels like this will help, then I would give it a shot and follow their instructions exactly (based off of the assumption that you trust your doctor). Good luck!! Here is the pdf information right from the maker of lyrica. I browsed through it and did not see any mention of habbit forming, abusing, or abornmal drug-seeking behavior. it did say, and i quote, that it may make some people feel "high". This does not mean that somewhere else there may be information that says exactly what you stated though. http://www.pfizer.com/files/products/ppi_lyrica.pdf all thoughts and opinions expressed are those of my own and should not be mistaken for medical advice. i am not a doctor nor a pharmacist. all medical questions should be answered by a licensed pharmacist, doctor, or primary care manager. thanks..
Thanks for the reply Phisher, thats what I figured-what you said, that it was just one of those warnings that they have to put to cover themselves, incase of any problems. I didnt think it would to anything euphoric, coz my doc wouldnt have rx'ed it to me. As long as it helps my nerve pain, or shocks as I call them. Also I am sure not all sites have this warning, I forget which one it was, may have been web md, actually i think it was coz thats usually the one I check first. I just thought it was weird that this warning was on the lyrica and not the neurontin. Thanks again!  My experience with Lyrica
I have tried Lyrica and I can say it does well with the shocking feeling down the leg. As far as a high feeling, I definately do not see that happening. The only problem with this medication is that it takes a while to get into your system. Its not controlled release like Oxycontin or Dilaudid which is instant release. But either way it works well but I also have to say that it hurts my stomach sometimes without Milk. I would say go for it if the Doc says so. Lyrica would not feel like
Lyrica would not feel like an opiod, since it is not one. Lyrica is Pregablin, and as the name implies, it is active at the GABA(gamma aminobutyric acid) sites in the brain. (preGABAlin) It is essentially a more potent version of gabapentin, and the subjective feeling it gives is similar to it as well. I would assume that the closest cross-over abuse population would probably be those who abuse benzodiazepines or alcohol, but not opiates (although an "addictive personality" sometimes knows no boundaries) my mother just started
my mother just started taking lyrica at 75mg TID for her fibromyalgia and the first week she took it she was stumbling around and said she felt drunk so it deffinitely has abuse potential however I would not put it anywhere near opiates more like a weak benzo or alcohol. But it deffinitely has some sort of abuse potential. It has little to no abuse
It has little to no abuse potential according to the DEA; hence its category 5 scheduling. I guess if one looks at in a theoretical manner then yes, essentially anything can be abused (i.e. food, sleep, et al). However, I think that the original poster was more concerned about the potential for the drug to become addictive to them (which is why she asked). all thoughts and opinions expressed are those of my own and should not be mistaken for medical advice. i am not a doctor nor a pharmacist. all medical questions should be answered by a licensed pharmacist, doctor, or primary care manager. You are right in that the
You are right in that the government considers pregabalin to be little to no abuse potential due to its schedule V ruling on this drug however I was speaking more from my own experiences because I know that this drug does alter your consciousness. The prescribing information advises against sudden termination of pregabalin due to possible withdrawal symptoms so although it is not of major concern compared to the higher schedule drugs I felt that it should still be noted that it can cause dependency and thus lead to addiction. I think this goes back to the debate over dependence/addiction and how people interpret it differently because although the prescribing info warns of dependency you can become dependent without an addictive need for the drug to alter your consciousness however if you have a very badly addictive personality like me this drug can still cause addictive tendencies even if it is less than narcotics and other schedules drugs. It is scheduled for a reason. Phisher you probably answered the question the way the OP wanted and I was speaking more of my opinion with pregabalin. To sum up yes this drug is said to have very little abuse potential but as phisher said anything can be abused if you have an addictive tendency towards it. lyrica
Thanks to all who replied to my original post. I wasn't worried about gettin addicted to it because I know its not an opiate and wont feel like one. From taking the neurontin I know that was rx'ed for bedtime, and I felt drunk when I woke up so thats why I dont take it anymore. I was just wondering if the Lyrica will make me feel that way all day since it was rx'ed for the daytime, and one of you said its a more potent neurontin. And I was wondering why the lyrica had all the warnings, where the neurontin didnt. So it must be if you like to feel groggy and drunk, then you would abuse it. Just depends on the person, like u said. As long as it helps the shocking electric-like pains I have going down my arms, thats all I care about. I was thinking though, since I have been on methadone, I have been rx'ed percs and vics for my neck pain in the ER, and for a tooth infection, and extraction. Obviously I am on a high enough blocking dose, so when I took the pills I felt no euphoric feelings at all, which I didnt expect to, but they did help my pain, just like if I took a regular Tylenol. So knowing this, I dont see why my doc cant prescribe me a weak opiate like perc 5's for my pain, he knows Im on the 'done, and knows I wouldnt get high off of the percs, so I wouldnt abuse them. Thats why I havent relapsed at all, cause my dose is so high that I wont feel anything I take anyways. I know this is not likely to happen, doc givin the opiates to me, Im realistic enough, but it was just a thought. I know how people treat addicts, especially docs! And esp. if u r on methadone, they still think u are a junkie. But thats a whole different subject. Thanks again for replies, everybody. It worked for a while...
I was put on Lyrica for a month; it cost me some $275.00 for the prescription (it was NOT covered by insurance) and actually worked well for about 2 weeks. It started kicking in about day 3 or so. After that, it did not work at all and I guess that this just happens. What this really was equates to a last-ditch effort to "not prescribe" medications that they knew would work. I take both Oxy (low-dose) and MSIR for pain now, and have veirtally no problems with respect to the typical opioid-induced haze that so many abusers take them for. For the first time in years, I lead a somewhat normal life.
Lyrica has a lot of warnings because they simply do not really know how/why it works. They hypothesize about it, but they don't know. The "warning sheet" on MSIR is about 1/5 the length because the effects are well-known over decades. My mother started taking
My mother started taking lyrica 75mg three times a day and she said she felt very tired and drunk for the first week and a half but then it went away. She says it does help to a small degree with her fibromyalgia but she is also prescribed percocets. lyrica
thanks again for all who replied, i finally got the lyrica, i hadnt even had the pills cause i was waiting for my ins to approve them. they arent for fybromyalgia, they are just for nerve pain associated with my herniated discs and ddd in my neck that sends electric pains down my arms. i hope it works, and i hope it doesnt interfere with my methadone and klonopin that i am on. those 2 meds i am fine, no drowsiness or feeling tired, but if the lyrica makes me feel that way all day, ill hafta stop it. I have had people describe a
I have had people describe a reation like that to Benedryl! Just because it makes you feel loopy, doesn't mean it is addictive. If people do not evidence drug seeking behavior, reinforcement, and a couple of other things then the FDA doesn't label it addictive. I would have to look up the exact criteria. Lyrica
Sam I just started taking Lyrica because I read of some studies/research that indicated that it increased the effectiveness of ms contin and reduced the dependence factor as well.Lyrica is the new and suposedly improved version of neurontin so there probably isn't much difference.I've been taking narcotics for almost 35 years now and am fairly experienced as you may imagine. i have also read
i have read somewhere, i cant remember where, but i read that neurontin is good to take when going thru benzo withdrawals, and it might have even said opiate wd's too, i cant remember that either. it explained why, ill hafta try to find it, but if the bottom line is that it helps the wd's from the bz's, if i ever hafta go thru them ill def. try it to see if it really makes u feel better. so IF this is true, then i would think lyrica would do the same thing. ill try to find where i read that and get the info. I don't recall seeing any
I don't recall seeing any reliable sources stating gabapentin/pregabalin use as a treatment for benzo w/d's, but it makes sense. Benzo's, I believe are fairly selective for the GABA A-subtype receptor. I don't know how selective gabapentin or pregabalin are, but as long as they agonists at the A-type to some degree, I am sure they would be effective at relieving symptoms of w/d, and probably be very beneficial in the prevention of cessation-induced seizures.
in the same boat
Hey, I read your post and am compelled to write to you as I think we have very similar situations. I am 27, in 2000 I fell 35-40 ft from a roof, breaking 5 vertebrae, pelvis in 3 places, ruptured spleen, other internal injuries that resulted in a permanent (until medical advances) colostomy. I had Harrington rods for a couple years, which go nearly the full lenght of the back, but had them removed due to a massive infection that nearly killed me. Anyway- I too had a pre-existing opiate addiction, though at the time of injury I had been doing really well with it. When I "woke-up" in the hospital almost a month later I was mortified to find that they had me on a 4(?)mg/hr morphine drip. Plus extra if I was even worse. I also had family at the hospital tell the dr's that I was an addict and they should be aware that I'd be going into withdrawls (which for once was not true, however remains in my med. chart) So, getting to the point, I had the stigma hovering over every single treatment related decision they made. How much pain did I have to be in to recieve narcotics? How could they tell if it was real or an act? Especially when I was discharged from the hospital; at that time, 3 months after injury, I was on 1 5mg oxycodone/4 hrs. It was working then, not completely, but I wanted to feel some of it because it was a guide to healing. My dad told my dr that I wanted to go home so badly because I wanted to use drugs (like I couldn't get them brought in to the hospital?) Part of why my pain increased was that nerves are pretty slow to heal, and when they started really waking up deep in ,my legs and feet, I was in for it. I had spasms just from my mom stepping down too heavily on the floor, or breathing in too deeply. It took me becoming strung out again, dropped by more than one dr, before I found a dr that immediately put me on the 75mcg duragesic patch and started getting me off the drugs. The dr was concerned that if I went through a methadone detox, the fentynal would'nt work, but I did it anyway. I didn't want to get high, I just wanted to not hurt so badly that I was suicidal 24 hours a day. Together we worked on keeping the pain under control, giving me the ability to do the physical therapy that enabled me to regain 80% or so of my legs' function, and besides the rx'd stuff, I stayed clean. Fast foward to now... Now I've had a few years of experience with this broken body of mine, and way too many experiences with dr's that absolutely cannot see past those condem-me-to-hell words, "drug-seeker/opiod addict." I've been wondering if lyrica would help me, because while opiates work to get rid of this pain, I don't want it to be the only option, because the side effects aren't just medical, they are psyc and financial as well. And that I can't get it legally, because so many doctors have judged me negatively because I went to several a year ago, inc. two ER's and they all said the same thing when they found out I was on Methadone, "SO, you do heroin?" NOT the same as methadone, if I had wanted to get drugs, I could've stopped on my way to the hospital at the dealer's house. From what I've read about lyrica, it sounds like it's for my type(s) of pain. The pain that drives me the most to use is the burning, electrical stabbing pain that either moves down from the right hip in a sort of sciatica kind of way, or starts with intense burning in my foot (I've got a HUGE bunyon, and my big toe is off to the right at 2o'clock instead of straight to 12 then lights up my foot , lower leg, knee, thigh, sometimes even my bum and lower back with the most unbearable skin-crawling burning sensation. It's really crazy pain, I've tried all sorts of distractions, music, progressive relaxation, meditation, exercise, stretches, heat, ice, massage (works well when it's starting in my lower back, it will stop it from moving down if done well) tylenol, advil, naproxen, neurontin, baclofen (makes me thow up now, but used to help years ago, zanaflex, skelaxin, lidoderm patches, even botox injections ( made it way worse- not only did the pain not decrease, but my leg was sore for two weeks from the shots and every spasm took my breath away, NEVER AGAIN), I've even tried different things like Cymbalta (one doc was convinced the pain was a SIDE EFFECT of depression! What has helped was regular visits to a chiropractor, with heat therapy with their TENS machine. Before I saw him, I was taking neurontin600 3x, baclofen20 4x, zanaflex4 4x, welbutrin 1x, within 6 weeks I was only on the neurontin, and the zanaflex at bedtime. Then my insurance dropped chiropractic coverage and at $40 a visit, my SSI would be gone. I love how they'll shell out for all the band-aids in the world, but not for a treatment that actually had tangible results!! At one point last year they mentioned methadone for pain, but because I don't always have it, I didn't like that idea. The clinic I was in was not a pain clinic, in fact they made different rules for the "pain" patients, like needing to actually see their dr for dose increases (reg clients just ask their counselor) But I hated methadone, hated it hated it. Before methadone, opiates had a tendancy to make me anxious, manic even sometimes, but because they were relatively short-acting, it would go away before too long. Even taking just a single percocet would give me noticable anxiety, so with the methadone that anxiety increased dramatically, to the point that I could not function because I'd be in bed rocking back and forth crying and praying for god to make iot go away. Every single day for almost a year. So when they proposed increasing my dose and prescribing it for pain (which is taken a few times over the day rather than once) I refused, which only further justified thier "drug-seeking" observation. Luckily as the weather improved over last spring, a lot of that pain subsided. Now it's just a few days a week, usually not starting till afternoon, but I'm still having only obstacles to effective treatment. I'dlike to try accupuncture, but again, can't pay for it. pizzicato....
whats up pizzi. now i wasnt saying that what i read was that drs actually use the neurontin for w/d treatment, it did mention the seizures from cessation, that def makes sense, but i guess i worded that post wrong..i meant more like from what i read it said that neurontin was good at helping w/d from benzoz, but it didnt say anything about medical professionals actually using it for that purpose. its more like if u have some or rxed them but dont take them hang on to them incase u are ever quitting a significant dosage of bzs cold turkey, and give them a shot, i know i will. then i was thinking that since lyrica is a more potent neurontin (so i was told by my dr) that they too would help with the bz w/ds. sorry for any confusion in that last post about this.  W/D
I know I have heard from many it shouldn't do it but it does. If I take lyrica I have to ween down to go off and I have to do it slowly. I get sweats and shakes, that feeling that drives ya nuts, horrible taste in my mouth, the yawns and stretching. I also have the same with Neurontin® (gabapentin) when i was on high doses it takes me a while to get off them. I assume it has something to do with my nerves, the physical addiction does not out-weight the benefits. I have never noticed such a difference in pain that I want to go down on regular pain meds. I hate being physically addicted to anything, but if I have to it better be doing something for me. I hate withdrawal, I would be OK if I was the only person that these drugs did this to but I doubt it. I am not trying to detour anyone from trying it, I have heard from many who think they are the greatest nerve pain meds. I think its just another pharmaceutical money maker. I know there have been things out there linking gabapentin to suicides? Since Lyrica is its brother, makes me wonder? Just my personal opinion.
There is no pain you are receding. A distant ships smoke on the horizon..... |
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