Pregabalin?

Hi all,

I visited the Doctor today as I was feeling very jittery, anxious and in a downright black mood. I felt I couldn't function anymore.

It was a locum GP, so obviously not someone I'd seen before. We discussed my need for something to numb the effects of anxiety.

I've tried loads of SSRIs, citalopram and amitriptyline. None stop the anxiety. I can't have betablockers as I'm asthmatic. I explained that years ago I had Dosulepin/Dothiapin which I think is a trycyclic drug (but I may be wrong).

Anyhow...he has prescribed me pregabalin. Does anyone have any experience of this? Good? Bad?

Whilst it's licensed for anti anxiety and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, it is also a epileptic drug and used for long term (nerve) pain.

I'd be interested in your comments. Thank you.

It's a miracle drug if you can tolerate side effects (I didn't have any). Just don't get hooked, withdrawals can be worse than from benzos.

Personally, I wouldn't use it on a daily basis. The tolerance builds up very fast and it is just much more powerful when used sporadically. It works for 6 hours or so and it completely annihilates my anxiety to the point that I can do things that would normally give me chills just by thinking of it. It is also the only thing that helps me with insomnia, although it's not sedative at all (actually, the opposite), and it makes you more social. That's the way it can become addictive. How can you possibly not abuse something that makes you a superman?

covro wrote:Just don't get hooked, withdrawals can be worse than from benzos.

that's saying something!

don't instantly discard anything that may work for you, but... be careful, snookie

Can I ask you, do you drink it at evening or at morning?
I asked my psychiatrist Pregabalin, just because of this thread. I liked idea, that it makes you more social. She never prescribed it for such issues like mine, so she dont know much about this drug. Sorry for poor English.

You take a tablet in the morning and one at night.

I wouldn't say it makes you more social. It has taken away the symptoms of my anxiety, so I feel less jittery. I do feel calmer...even though I still have doubts and worries.

It is licensed for anxiety...I don't think it's necessarily used for social phobia.

snookiebookie wrote:I wouldn't say it makes you more social.

I guess that could be dose-dependant. I took 150 in the morning and it definitely made me more willing to socialize. I read numerous reports of the same effect on other forums. I took it once a day, so that probably made the effects more profound because of a lower tolerance than when you take it twice. Taking it twice a day makes sense in case of the generalized anxiety though.

Anyhow...he has prescribed me pregabalin. Does anyone have any experience of this? Good? Bad?

Bad, bad, bad, especially if you have fibromyalgia, although some people at regular med forums posted that it worked for them. I would see if you could ask for tramadol, although that is not usually prescribed for anxiety as it has a pretty powerful anti-anxiety effect and the dependency profile is about similar to GABA agonists.

Is someone else using Pregabalin aka Lyrica with Avpd?

I've been taking it since late last year. I'd be happy to stay on it forever, except I do think it saps whatever motivation I would have. I didn't have much of that to lose.
The side effects for me are minor and mostly wore off, along with the pleasant buzz (sadly). I might be a little dumber, who knows.
Other than that I don't really feel much 'different,' there's just a relief from this constant gnawing background noise which I was so used to that I couldn't really imagine life without it.

Unfortunately, my life has fallen apart over the last twelve months, and I'm not doing anything about it. I recently tried stopping the pregabalin for that reason, and, well, yikes..... it was maybe a bit of withdrawal but I think I actually did feel that bad before. I don't need to feel like that.

I'd recommend trying it. I am usually very sensitive to medication (ssri's turn me into an actual crazy person), so I'm really grateful to have something so tolerable that really helps me.

UPDATE

It is sometime since I posted the original post.

I came off of pregabalin about a year ago.

At first is was like a wonder drug. I felt chilled and calm, much like I expect marijuana would make you feel (never actually tried it). There was a gentle sedative effect, which is what you need with chronic, crunching, churning anxiety. It also solves any sleep issues you have, as it knocks you out.

However, the problem that I found was tolerance. Slowly over a course of months the effects seemed to diminish. I presume as my body became tolerant to it. The answer, increase your dose (under the advice of my GP). The wonderful effects kicked again.

Sadly, after a month or so, I felt the effects wearing off again and the familiar feeling of anxiety creeping in.

Eventually, I figured that there would be limit to how much I could take. There is a maximum dose. I would get to a point where I would not be able to increase the dose anymore. There I would be stuck on an high dosage and still have the anxiety. I reasoned that I may as well take nothing and have the anxiety if it was going to return anyway.

At the completely the wrong time of my life (so much was going on) and without medical advice I pretty much went cold turkey. Bad idea. It is suggested that you withdraw gradually. It was two or three weeks of hell. I had all sorts of feelings and emotions and physical symptoms - all of which could have been avoided by withdrawing correctly!

I haven't really missed being on the meds. If I could have maintained the feelings that I had in the first few days/weeks, then I would still be on it. I did not have major side effects whilst on it.

In my opinion it is worth taking for a short while, to give you a break from the symptoms of anxiety. But as with most meds it is not a cure, but a tool for handling the symptoms.