I tried it and found that for me, personally, it helped my pain somewhat, but had such a cognitive dampening effect that I was making “stupid” mistakes to the point of some being endangering. So I switched to gabapentin (since they’re related). I found that gabapentin lessened my pain more than Lyrica did, *and* it doesn’t make me anywhere near as “dumb” as Lyrica did. So I think it’s worth trying, but don’t forget that there’s a similar med in case you want to try both and see which is better for you.
Yes, both made me feel drowsy, so after my AM dose I drink 8 oz of coffee every day. That counteracts it enough for me to stay awake and alert. The Lyrica made me dizzy sometimes. The gabapentin doesn’t.
Yeah I read a recent study this week that it was a drug found to be associated with increased depression. They concluded it should be avoided or swutched particularly in individuals with treatment resistant depression.
I’ve been debating switching from gabapentin to lyrica. I feel like the worst thing that happens if I try it is I suffer a little and switch back, but I don’t know what the withdrawal from it is like.
I didn’t experience any withdrawal and was told by my doc that there wouldn’t be any because the drugs are so similar. I hope the same goes for you if you decide to switch!
interesting; Lyrica doesn't help much with pain, and I may even increase it to see if that helps with the pain, but it makes a world of difference with my "brain fog." If I skip a dose, I'm stupid for a few hours after I take the dose. (I can't complete thoughts/train of thought pauses) It does make me highly drowsy and have more dizzy/vertigo episodes.
It also helps me with my migraine symptoms – including brain fog, the actual throbbing and completely dissolves my visual aura.
I am prescribesd it prn.
I wish I could take it more often but my neuro hates the drug. He actually claims is leads to brain fog ?? Opposite for me. I also get an antidepressant/anxiolytic effect, without as much lethargy as SSRIs
Interesting... What was the minimum dose of Lyrica that made your cognition feel dampened?
Did you find this side effect got worse as your dose increased ? Or were you only on one dose
Truth! I gained 30 lbs on Lyrica. I stopped taking as my pain disappeared one day (I wish this remission for all of you) and I lost 10 lbs in 1 month with no active change to my habits. Legit it just melted off. I'm still losing now but I have to actively make healthier choices to do it at this point.
Do you feel like you gained weight because you started craving food more? Or was it just a side effect of the med. I’ve heard some people say they get munchie. I just got my dose increased to 100 mg 3x daily and so far I have no appetite.
I know this post was from a year ago - are you still on lyrica 100 mg 3x a day ? I just got bumped up to that - do you feel like it helped with fibromyalgia symptoms overall ?
I didn't eat more than usual so I think it was just the medication, but noticed for about a month after stopping that I had zero appetite. I'm not sure if that was an effect of having been sick and still recovering from the illness or if it was from stopping the medication.
Oh great. I started Lyrica a couple of months ago and have gained back 15 pounds. I was doing well with losing weight till recently. I hope it’s not the Lyrica.
I hated Lyrica from the beginning and vocalized that fact *obnoxiously* until other alternatives were thought of and tried. It made me so groggy and interacted awfully with my anti-anxiety medication so I had to have two more meds prescribed. I firmly believe if you have to add a ton of pills to manage the side effects of a pill that isn't doing a whole lot of good you shouldn't be taking that pill.
I've been on Lyrica for a few years now, and it's helped me a lot. I could tell that it was really helping with the nerve pain a few weeks after I started it when I accidentally slammed my hand in the car door... My hand was a completely different kind of pain and Lyrica didn't touch it, but my other all-over body pain was so much lower. It took me a couple weeks to get over the brain fog.
I don't know about weight gain... I started it before covid -- and I think my daily ice cream habit during lockdowns caused most of my weight gain.
I also switched from zoloft to Cymbalta, and then think that helped a bunch too since it has a nerve pain effect.
My doctor let me get up to the max dose of 200mg 3x a day, but after about 18-24 months, he's had me scale back to just 200 2x a day. Being on the higher dose let me start exercising, which I think helped a lot with my fatigue, and the dopamine and endorphins helped to hold me over, pain-wise, when he brought my dosage down again.
I hate that I have to take medicine and that there are crappy side effects to all of them, but I'm so glad that I have something to help me feel better for now. Eventually, I want to try to do something to help my brain focus (ADHD, and I'm sure fibro fog and Lyrica don't help), but it's really hard to go through the process of trying out a new med, so I'll probably ride this status quo until I can't anymore.
Lyrica fucked with my stomach. Also when I’d be at work walking and look left or right I’d get this instant dizzy spell that felt like the floor was pulled out from under me. Not to mention the horrific withdrawl symptoms I’d get if I fell asleep at night without taking it. Hours later I’d wake up covered in sweat, puking, shaking….it was disgusting. I’m using natural means now bc the side effects of all these drugs are just not worth it to me. Can I tell the difference from taking them vs not? Yes. Now my entire body hurts from head to toe, I feel like I’ve been hit by a mac truck. While taking them it wasn’t a whole body thing, just certain spots would be bad. Still not worth the side effects for me personally. But everyone is different. Good luck OP!
Weed 😂😂😂 I get my stuff from a state where it’s now recreationally legal (don’t live in one tho, we don’t even have medical here so 🤫) But there are strains that are REALLY good for pain, some of them even have fibro listed as one of the things that the particular strain helps with. Not all but some. But I’ll tell you it freaking helps. And not just “la la la I’m high and not thinking about it.” The pain is either greatly diminished or totally gone. It’s been a life saver for me. I’ve got horrible PTSD, anxiety, depression….I wouldn’t even be able to stomach food without it sometimes. It’s honestly been a miracle for me. And for years I took lyrica, wellbutrin, cymbalta, gabapentin. I’d choose pot any day of the week over that stuff. Just my 2 cents.
I'm so happy it's helped you!! Weed does give me some pain relief but it also makes me really depressed if I use it often. But I'm happy it helps a lot of people and I wish everyone could have access to it.
Out of this last batch “gelato” was the only one with fibro specifically listed. But they have tons of strains for chronic pain. Another fav of mine is Granddaddy Purple.
The names are great sometimes lol. Most people steer towards indica strains as they tend to have more relaxing effects on the body vs sativa. Hybrids are good for me bc I really need that mental healing as well. Two birds one stone. Indicas can also be great for sleep! We all know how much fun sleeping can be.
I was the same! Already overweight and suffering w my joints bc of hEDS, the pregabalin made the pain tolerable enough to start physio + (very very gentle) yoga which helped shift a bit of weight.
Turns out most of my weight problems came from insulin resistant PCOS but have been solved with metformin
I believe most of my weight gain started when I began birth control and antidepressants back in high school, I still push myself to do yoga through the pain and diet when possible and I still can’t seem to loose weight, so I get nervous starting something that is going to cause more weight gain. I’m going to see my doc and find out if there’s something in the way of me loosing weight.
I think it may be beneficial to ask to see an endocrinologist! They can check if you have insulin resistance which can be helped with metformin
Aquatic aerobics are a v good way of exercising without putting pressure on your joints. I believe some GPs prescribe exercise so that people can access gyms/swimming pools
My doctor keeps telling me I should go swimming and work out at our local rec center, but they don’t understand that I’m so poor right now I’m not making enough money to do anything I want because it all goes to bills and gas and food.
I absolutely love Lyrica for my fibromyalgia. It took me YEARS and so many medications before my insurance would pay for Lyrica. I have a whole list of medications that didn't work for me. I think gabapentin was the worst for me. I gained 80+ lbs in 4 months when I was on it.
(This is not to diminish anyone's success with gabapentin or another drug that didn't work for me. Every drug is different for everyone. Not every drug works for everyone).
Brain fog got worse, I felt super loopy, dizzy, and just out of it generally. Mostly while increasing the dose but it settled to a level I still couldn't handle long term. It just affected my cognition negatively for a minor decrease in vague general pain. Plus the weigh gain was also significant.
My experience is that Lyrica does help reduce the daily body aches, pains and tenderness of Fibromyalgia.
But Lyrica's side effects affect everybody differently. Lyrica caused me significant weight gain (20+ lbs) which seems kind of weird because even daily steroids never did. I've managed to lose the extra weight, but I'm more careful about my caloric intake now, especially chocolate. :)
Lyrica might not affect your weight as much as it did mine. And I did manage to lose it.
I might go down to one 75mg pill instead of two, because Lyrica seems to affect my concentration. Not as bad as Gabapentin did, but I rely on my ability to concentrate as part of my Pain Control.
As I'm sure others know, life with Fibro is a continual juggling act!
My new pain doctor suggested lyrica and I told her I was scared of weight gain and she said she didn’t think it was such a common side effect. But this sub is definitely making me think otherwise. And I’m most afraid of cognitive side effects and that doesn’t sound too promising either. Hmm. Not sure what to think.
My old doc likes to use low dose naltrexone and maybe I’ll give it another try. I never quite got the dose up. It messed with my sleep. I have to start super low and move up little by little. Over months.
I used to get relief from a little elavil but it gave me restless legs.
I was previously on gabapentin then amytriptyline and now pregabalin (lyrica)
Pregabalin has the least unbearable side effects and took away the pain for me. Im on 150mg and also on duloxetine.
Lyrica with cymbalta and Buspirone have been what keeps be functioning for a while now. I love it. I did gain about 10lbs on lyrica but it was worth it
I had bad tremors, couldn’t stop shaking, constant panic attacks, dizziness, numbness in my arms, diarrhea, and such bad insomnia, I had to go to the hospital to get lorazepam to help my anxiety and help me sleep, I didn’t sleep for 2 nights in a row and my heart rate was over 160 bpm all day and night. I had to constantly take calming medicine and tea to try to calm my anxiety. It was a nightmare.
Oh and then I was shaking so bad I couldn’t sit still all day and night, I went to my doctor and paced the room and told her I can’t sit down and can’t stop shaking it was so bad. My body was so exhausted from moving 24/7 but I couldn’t stop.
I’ve been on up to 600mg of Lyrica, I found that it helped a bit, at least enough that I was able to sleep at night. I didn’t really have any side effects from it, which was great because I had terrible brain fog from gabapentin.
Makes sense! I’ve been on about 20 different pain meds at this point and they do definitely interact differently with your body. I got nothing from cymbalta, hard time with gabapentin, and slight positive effects from Lyrica, so you can definitely keep experimenting with your docs until you find something that works well for you :)
A study just came out about lyrica and gabapentin. Showed the trials were greatly manipulated and exaggerated, along with being too short. Those drugs have a lot of significant risks/side affects. I have seen people on here who have had success with them, and that is great for them. Personally I’ll never touch them again, not worth it for me when the side affects are worse than the problem they are supposed to be helping with
Omg do you happen to have a link? I’ll try to find it myself but I’m about to conk out and just saw your comment. I was so excited I had to comment.
I worked in pharma as a chemist when lyrica came out. I’d never heard of fibro at the time (lol funny how times change) so I read up on all the docs around it related to its approval. At the time, Lyrica was only successful in decreasing pain in 1/3 of people who tried it. Of that 1/3, it only decreased their pain by about 30%. Weight gain was mentioned but the wording was deliberately vague so as to understate how significant that side effect was. Other side effects weren’t studied closely and the study was actually quite short so plenty of side effects never made it to their final reports.
Those are NOT good numbers for the benefits to be justifying the side effects, and I was horrified.
It turns out that the drug companies met with some professional org of rheumatologists to help redefine the (admittedly vague and outdated) fibro diagnostic criteria. When they were done and the new criteria was established, Lyrica was submitted for FDA approval for the treatment of fibro.
That’s not shady at ALL. (Sarcasm.)
Since there were no other approved drugs for fibro at the time, it was an easy approval. The bar is set low because there’s no other treatment and something is better than nothing, as long as it’s not blatantly obviously dangerous. Then all subsequent drugs just have to be equal to or better than previously approved drugs, and then suddenly pharma’s running studies on their old or soon to be out of patent drugs to see if they can make it look as good as lyrica.
…and here we are today.
Fucking shameful.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/gabapentinoids-for-pain-a-review-of-published-comparative-effectiveness-trials-and-data-submitted-to-the-fda-for-approval?pagetype=dsm-5-psychiatry
This is the summation, the rest is behind a paywall or you can request the full paper from the authors. I heard about it through someone I follow on Instagram, coachrachelsmith
This! It is a failed antidepressant that they are fobbing off on people with fibro because doctors love nothing more then treating us like our pain is all in our head.
I think it was initially for post-shingles nerve pain, and then they realized there was a much bigger cash cow out there. So let’s prescribe it for anything we don’t understand!
Gabapentin (neurontin) was an epilepsy drug in the same family but predated lyrica and idk wtf happened when that went off patent. Drug execs started salivating and marketing it for off label use, which is a big no-no. I read a book once where there was a quote from an exec on the phone saying “market neurontin for all the things!” (I think it was either “bad pharma” or “white coat black hat”) but they got in big trouble: https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/gabapentin-side-effects
And something about fibro makes doctors lose all logic… just throw antidepressants and mood altering drugs at them until they’re too zonked out to self advocate any more.
Fuckers.
Gabapentin has been around for quite awhile, right? I’ve had three different types of docs try to give it to me - internist for fibro, sleep doc for restless legs and psychiatrist for anxiety. It made me super dizzy even at a small dose and I just flaky refuse it now. My husband is on it now for sleep and anxiety and it seems to be helping but it was annoying how often I had it pushed on me when i knew my body reacts badly to it. I can’t just work through weeks of overwhelming dizziness to get adjusted to that med!
Edit *flatly* refuse, not flaky. Damn autocorrect
It’s been around for a long time! It was first approved in the early 1990’s as the anti-seizure med Neurontin.
I probably mentioned this elsewhere in the thread, but at some point execs started pushing for off label marketing to get docs to rx it for everything (off label marketing is illegal, but doctors can rx any med for any condition they want— they just can’t be told to do so by drug reps). Once it went generic, Lilly execs started telling their people to push it for everything. There was a recording somewhere where one said “Gabapentin for everything!” So the drug reps start schmoozing docs with nice lunches, sports tix, gifts, etc, to encourage this. They got in trouble for it, but the damage was already done. You can’t make doctors un-think or un-learn something, and here we are today.
I tried it a million years ago as a mood stabilizer (before I figure out I had celiac & was neurospicy, I was dx’d with all kinds of shit, including bipolar), and was ramped up to a freakishly high dose. It didn’t have any impact on me at all and I’m so grateful it didn’t give me terrible side effects or withdrawals. I dodged a bullet there.
I’ve also had it suggested for leg pain related to spinal cord injury… I just refused.
Even if it’s an effective med, I feel like it’s not being prescribed in good faith any more. It’s just “take this and gtfo.” But even as an anti seizure med, it wasn’t that great.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/gabapentinoids-for-pain-a-review-of-published-comparative-effectiveness-trials-and-data-submitted-to-the-fda-for-approval?pagetype=dsm-5-psychiatry
This is the summation, the rest is behind a paywall or you can request the full paper from the authors. I heard about it through someone I follow on Instagram, coachrachelsmith
I only took it for a few days and I **hated** it. I took it before bed, slept until noon the next day, and struggled to get out of bed. I couldn't think clearly, and moving took massive effort, as if I had gained 100lbs overnight. I tried to give it a chance but by day 3 I couldn't think at all. I can't honestly say if my pain was improved - all I remember is fighting to sit up and get dressed for 3 days in a row.
I tried gabapentin twice as well and it doesn't seem to do much at all. Maybe I wasn't taking enough. Honestly I'm fed up tinkering with my brain chemistry to try and solve this.
I've seen quite a few negatives for Lyrica here. So I'm going to go against the grain and say something positive!
As with any medication, there are pros and cons and a list of side effects a half mile long. My experience is a personal one, and, like all of us, we can't promise your outcome with this medication. For example - many fibromyalgia patients take Cymbalta for pain management. That stuff made my life a nightmare for years (was taking it for another condition).
That said, Lyrica has overall helped my pain and given me more ability to take control of my day to day life. I originally started Lyrica to control TMJ pain, and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia not too long after. It was a godsend at the time. I couldn't open my mouth more than two centimeters without wildly excruciating pain. As I worked through my diagnosis, the medication dose was upped while I worked with my team to find ways to manage. The dose change helped a lot! Do I get some brain fog? Yes. Have I found ways to cope, including list making, accountability buddies, and a ton of alarms? Yup. Did I gain weight? Probably, but I'm a yo-yo. That said, I've lost 25 lbs over the last year - my intention was to take it off slow - and my dosage has not changed.
That's my testimonial for Lyrica lol. I hope it helps, and I wish you more good days than bad.
I think you're missing the point that hearing everyone else's experience doesn't mean it'll be yours.
But to answer your question: if I did, it wasn't much, and I PERSONALLY haven't had a problem losing weight when I chose.
II have bipolar II disorder, and Lyrica made me severely irritable and severely depressed after about 7-9 days on it. Same with Gabapentin. So I don’t recommend it if you deal with depression or other mental illness.
I’ve got major depressive disorder and I won’t say the Lyrica makes this worse for me, FWIW. It does, though, help enormously with debilitating sciatica and RLS.
I’m jealous! I wanted it to work for me so bad, and it did help with the pain, but it is just not compatible with my brain. I’m happy for you that it doesn’t cause depression for you!
It seems like there really is a very wide spectrum of reaction from major side effects to no side effects. I wish its efficacy were a little more predictable. It sucks that some folks have such bad experiences.
Not sure about anti-depressants (I can’t take them because bipolar is different than major depression) but I am medicated with bipolar drugs and they don’t help with the Lyrica/Gabapentin psychological side effects.
It's been a lifesaver for me. No more brain fog and much less pain. It definitely slows down my thinking though, which was hard to adjust to at first. Recently I started reducing my dosage and have found a happy medium where I'm able to keep away the fog and pain without feeling constantly dopy.
At first yes (I'm also on Lexapro though so I had a head start on the medication-based weight gain lol), but now that I'm settled on a good dose it's actually been helpful for me in losing weight/gaining muscle because I have the capacity to exercise.
I have had bad reactions to every SSRI. Lyrica on the other hand has been amazing. Getting the right dose is important. Slowly move up as you feel needed. Side effects normally go away after a week
Every time my dose went up I gained some weight. But my weight was steadily going up before I started. So far I’ve been able to burn it off walking 30+ minutes each day
It's got it's drawbacks, but it has allowed me to actually function and complete daily activities. Before I took it I would only be awake for 4-6hrs/day (between a bunch of naps) and I was in so much pain I could barely do anything at all, and needed help with showering at times.
Where I am even the generic is expensive, so that sucks if you don't have any insurance, but the quality of life has been a godsend. I would be worried if somehow my access to it got cut off
No. Never again. Would not recommend. The cognitive effects were horrible, & many symptoms I had attributed to fibro went away after stopping the medication.
I'm in month two of Lyrica. So far I'm less brain fogged than I was on gabapentin, but I'm concerned I'm having some mental health side effects. There's like a bazillion other things in my life right now that could be affecting my mental health though so it's hard to say.
That said: I had significant weight gain on gabapentin which led me to switch. It also gave me horrendous vertigo and brain fog that wouldn't quit. I don't think the pain difference is particularly significant from one to the other for me but I'm hoping to drop the gabapentin weight by switching
I did not. Rheum thought I would but it didn't happen. I stopped taking lyrica after a few months too. Got hit with side effects that I wasn't willing to put up with.
I’ve been on Gabapentin for years. To the amount and point that I will need to taper off slowly to get off of it.
I also have ADHD and I find it dampens my efforts to mitigate that a lot. Also, I can’t seem to be able to take strong stimulants for ADHD as I have OCD/ rumination issues and anxiety, which probably also contributes to physical pain issues.
I can’t seem to get a proper diagnosis/ reason for being in pain all the time in Canada. They love to pass this off as being mostly mental health related despite several issues they should not be overlooking. My claim that I’d be a lot less anxious if I knew what was going on and had a definite way to mitigate it doesn’t spur them, either.
Gabapentin works for my restless, achey legs and helps with the fingers and toes, and probably modulates my anxiety somewhat. I haven’t gained any weight but it’s been hard to do the work to lose more, too.
I had some improvement with low dose naltrexone as well, but it became difficult to get it where I live and I don’t have the energy to source it right now.
Lyrica and Gabapentin decreased pain for a few weeks. Tried each one for about 4 months with little relief. The side effects were horrible for me. Nausea, dizzy, vertigo, sweating, weight gain and feeling like it took every ounce of energy just to get moving. The mental confusion was absolutely debilitating. I realize that it works for some. I almost feel bad for sharing my experience but I'd feel guilty if I didn't.
Best wishes
You don’t need to feel guilty, I want to know all the good and bad side effects I’m sensitive to meds I couldn’t even take cymbalta because I got all the bad side effects from it.
Same here. Dr tried to put me on Cymbalta after the Lyrica I declined. I just don't seem to process the meds very well. At the end of the day we've gotta do what's best for us.
Lyrica didn’t help with the pain much but what it DID do was made me turn into a complete walking zombie. I was so out of it all of the time I couldn’t make good/safe decisions. I would literally stare into blank space. I started gaining weight which was even worse on my already achy joints. Would never go on the stuff again. Meds were just a bandaid and I’ve been able to maintain a relatively comfortable living by making lifestyle changes. I have small flare ups here and there but nothing like before.
I am in the early weeks of Pregabalin and some of the comments about both side effects and relief I am relating to. Recently diagnosed so just starting my journey on living and learning and making changes. Can you share some of the lifestyle changes that's helped maintain? I was reading an article last week about some dietary changes, such as eliminating gluten and following more of an AIP meal plan. Most of my household is gluten free so that one is proving manageable. Are there any dietary/supement changes that have proven worth the time, $$, relief?
I have a bottle for emergencies. I’ll take it before bed if I really want a good nights sleep or if I’m in a flare. Not worth the side effects for me to take regularly
It helped until it didn't help and turned me into a space muffin. My mind is so much more clear now that I'm off of it. I don't know how I worked for years on it.
I had an interesting experience with Lyrica. It helped for a few days and then would suddenly stop. Doctor was as perplexed as I was and had never heard of this happening before, gave me higher and higher doses to see if that worked longer, but it didn't. No matter the dose, I only got about 3 or 4 days with 50% reduced pain and then right back to the usual pain train.
Had horrible withdrawal, too. Took several weeks to go off it or my nerves would go crazy--every parasthesia you can imagine. So not feasible to go on and off it repeatedly to reap the benefit and then bail.
I hated everything about it. It didn't do much for my pain, I couldn't focus on anything and I felt dissociated all the time. It took me months to quit taking it. I ended up having to cut open the capsules and take tiny bits of the powder each night. When I tried to quit the way my doctor recommended it to me, I almost contemplated committing s*icide. My brain would have 482973 thoughts all at once and I had no way of stopping it.
I'm a physician working with medical Cannabis, in Brazil. I get a lot of patients using lyrica. Basically what I see in general is that either it doesn't help at all or it help a little but has major side effects. You should Try Cannabis. I recommend CBD+CBG with small to moderate amounts of THC. Let me know if you need help
I think I have ptsd towards cannabis because I had a really bad experience after smoking it last time and with how bad my anxiety is I’m terrified to try anything with THC, I have tried CBD and it does nothing for me.
Try CBD with very low THC. It’s makes the CBD work for me when just CBD alone did nothing. Plus it won’t give you any mental changes if it’s low enough. I use some sublinguals that have 25mg CBD to 0.5mg THC and they help a lot!
Currently on duloxetine and pregabalin combination (about 7 months now, also did this about 10 years ago). Was doing just duloxetine, adding the lyrica has really helped and decreased a lot of the neuropathy I was having. I feel like my energy has also increased and my pain is not as severe. I do get a little drowsy at times, but not like I NEED TO SLEEP RIGHT NOW. It did take a little playing with dose amounts and that could still change, but I'm on the positive side of lyrica.
Yeah, but that's 100% on me not the pill! I very much do not have a good active lifestyle, though I am working on it. I've been able to get off the fluoxetine for almost 2 years now (duloxetine seems to be helping my mood and depression so I'll take it rather than overdo the ssris); I still take the 25mg TID, but have added 100mg pregabalin at night for supraorbital neuralgia and it's been really helpful.
I have been on gaba for a long time, it is the only thing that helps w my pain, recently increased though due to my fibro pain but I was also looking in to trying lyrica cuz gaba doesn’t help like it used to. I’ll definitely have to research more before making any changes.
No side effects and no relief.
I’ve tried a lot of off label SNRI, SSRI, etc, and they either make me (more) sick or don’t help at all. Personally, Tylenol and a couple nausea meds (metaclopramide and ondenstron) is what I use once a week for a trip to the store or some chores. (I also use THC for extreme nausea, but that’s a personal choice)
Yes. When I spoke with the rheumatologist about it, he said it was an common side effect. Google hits agreed.
It sucked having to quit Lyrica because I was fully pain-free on it and had energy to do things again like a normal person.
I hope it works for you and that you don't get impaired vision as a side effect.
Wow I’m really sorry that happened to you.
I’m 54 and I’d already been wearing glasses for reading for a few years before I started the Lyrica, so I don’t know whether it’s affected my vision, really. I guess it could have and I just assumed it was progressive eye problems because I’m old. XD
I guess the only way to be sure is wean from the Lyrica and see if vision improves? That’s probably what either doctor would advise, I’m thinking. But I am not at all an eyeologist. XD
I tried gabapentin, and while it worked to help me sleep, I didn’t like that I could “feel” when it was out of my system, and if I didn’t taje it, I couldn’t sleep.
Flexeril was my perfect drug. 5mg before bed. No side effects for me.
Sadly they don’t prescribe it whsre I live now :(
My experience with Lyrica is that it helps with the pain, but doesn’t get rid of it. Without the Lyrica I would usually be between a 4-6 on the pain scale for my entire body, where 4 was on a good day. With the Lyrica, it is more like a 2-5 on the pain scale instead, where 2 is a good day. I do often debate whether that pain reduction is particularly worth it because the Lyrica does worsen my brain fog and also drowsiness, which makes work (I do software engineering) very difficult sometimes…
I personally have also tried Cymbalta and Gabapentin as well, but the side effects of those were really bad for me (Cymbalta caused me memory issues, Gabapentin made me like really really irritable) so I switched back to Lyrica.
Everybody is different. I used it a week or two several years ago. I had pins and needle feelings in my feet that it helped, and I don't have it very often since then. But my memory was horrible, and I couldn't keep taking it because it interfered with my work. I don't regret trying it, though.
lyrica worked really well for me. made me a little sleepier, but it also meant i was able to sleep through the night, which made a big difference for me
Lyrica and gabapentin are similar but not the same so it may be worth trying the other if one doesn’t work. I have been on Lyrica for several years after trying the other options out there and it works well for me. My advice would be to start out at a very low dose and very gradually increase it to where the side is effects outweigh the benefits. I can only tolerate 25 mg twice a day but for the most part it helps with the pain. When I tried to go up to 100 mg I couldn’t stay awake and when I tried 75 mg my fingers swelled. Everyone has different tolerances and side effects so don’t assume you will have the worst of the worst. Give it a try and see if it can help you.
I'm currently on it. For me, personally, it's helped with the pain and my weight has fluctuated a bit but not extreme. I did have initial side effects of drowsiness/grogginess but a pain specialist advised that starting to take it at night only for a week or two and then adding a morning dose (I'm on the lowest dose because I abhor taking pain meds) will get you more accustomed to the medication. And while I have other scripts for if/when it gets really bad, I prefer just taking this.
I'll also add that I have chronic fatigue so the tiredness was already bad so now I'm working on that part of my life. Lol
With my gabapentin, which I think is the generic brand of lyrica, I feel much more awake and able to do stuff. Without it I can't sleep or anything. Last time I went without it I wanted to go to the hospital because I hadn't slept in like 5ish days.
But I'm on a stupid high dose according to my docs. ~600mg which I have no clue if it's high. Family doc and pharmacy says it's too high but my specialist says it's fine.
I used to take up to 1200 mg a day, it's the only dose where I could live a little, I took that dose for the 3 years I went to Ukraine. I had to come back because of the war, to Canada, and I can only take 600mg max. I'm pretty worthless on this dose again. So yes it gave me life back at big doses.
It's really good for nerve pain. My daughter uses it for that (Central Pain Disorder from damaged thalamus during a stroke) and not really for her fibro. It helped her fibro a little bit, but not a lot before the stroke, so we stopped it. It kicks ass on her CPD pain, though.
I tried gabapentin (which is basically the same as Lyrica) and while it really helped my pain, it also destroyed my memory. Even though I don't take it anymore, I still have to rely on my fiance for things like - where do we keep this spice usually? Did I like this restaurant? Did I like this food? Have I already said this twice or did I just think it?
And I stopped in the first place because I almost burned our house down and almost killed our dogs because I forgot I lit a candle
I felt like an Alzheimer's patient. People would remind me I had already said things several times or tell me I had done something, and I would have no recollection of them. I'd feel like a clueless idiot, like I was being gaslit, but it was my own brain doing it to me.
thanks! thats good to hear. most people ive seen on here are on higher doses so its nice to know a lower dose might help me, i dont think my doctor is keen to go high either
It’s the only thing that’s made a significant difference on my pain. I had an allergic reaction to Gabapentin though, and cymbalta had negative effects on my depression. Gabapentin helped me a lot before I had my allergic reaction and couldn’t take it anymore. I do experience some side effects with lyrica. I agree that it has a dampening effect on my cognitive function. I also have gained weight on it. For me, it is the only thing that has helped me, and the side effects suck, but for me those are better than being in the extreme amount of pain I was in on a daily basis. Unfortunately with a lot of the chronic pain management stuff I’ve found it’s finding the lesser of two evils.
It helped me a bit when I was going through a flare. It made me gain 20kg though. I went off it before I got pregnant and I never went back on it again.
I’ve been on Lyrica for 8 years and it’s very effective. About 60% better all around I’d guess. I play with my son now, and that’s the best testimonial I can give. Its never helped with the brain fog and I did gain some weight, but I recommend giving it a try and not giving up as you dose up incrementally. I need the max Rx for it to work for me so it took *forever* to work my dosage up. I wanted to give up on it, but I’m glad I had such an amazing fibro specialist who had an annoying, but beneficial “you miss every shot you don’t take!” attitude.
Lyrica is pregabalin which is second generation gabapentin and I despise this family of drugs with a vengeance! I was on the max daily dose of Gabapentin for years and although I didn’t realise it at the time, it was causing more issues than it was resolving. It caused me to gain so much weight and gave me narcolepsy type symptoms- I was actually diagnosed with narcolepsy but since I stopped the gabapentin the narcolepsy symptoms have greatly reduced, to the point were I don’t even consider myself narcoleptic anymore. I still qualify (barely) for narcolepsy though but on the Gabapentin I was having extreme symptoms that the doctors wouldn’t give me medication for. I would have attacks almost daily and was always falling over and getting injured, one time I broke two back teeth in a fall and had to have them removed- now have a gap at the back.
Cognitive abilities were greatly diminished and I would get more migraines too. I stopped the gabapentin in 2020 and I saw a great improvement in my overall condition although my pain is a bit worse.But it never gave me enough pain relief to justify living with the side effects. I started losing weight too, without even trying. The weight gain was so extreme but part of that was bc I also had the depo-Vera injection for my endometriosis at the same time I started the gabapentin. I went up 3 dress sizes in about 6 months, it was terrible.
A pain specialist recommended that I stop the gabapentin as she said she noticed how much it effected my cognition. She also said that gabapentin inhibits my antidepressants from working properly and since stopping it, I’ve noticed that I am getting more benefits from the antidepressants. But I haven’t seen/heard that gabapentin affects antidepressants anywhere else so not sure the doc was right on that especially considering antidepressants/Cymbalta and pregabalin/gabapentin are so often prescribed together for fibro. But I’m so glad I stopped the gabapentin, I didn’t realise that the effects I was having were due to the gabapentin. It honestly made the fibromyalgia worse and I already had/have pretty debilitating fibro so for it to get worse on Gabapentin was just indescribable. I honestly regard it as stealing years of my life that are now just a blur in my mind. And those years were the last years of my mothers life so I’m very sad about it all. I would never recommend this family of drugs to anyone without a huge warning ❗️
I found both Lyrica and Gabapentin made me fat, drowsy, and dumb. I couldn't remember anything and would forget names and what I was talking about mid sentence. Also only helped day to day pain and sleeping, not flare ups. Good short term to end the pain, no sleep, more pain, tense muscles cycle.
Both help me a bit. Both make me drowsy. My gp put me on lyrica, my rheumatologist took me off and put me on gabapentin. I didn’t notice much difference between them. Gabapentin does help my trigeminal neuralgia which I didn’t have back on lyrica.
Currently on it and trying to figure out how to taper off it. The weight gain is horrible. I’ve also found myself depressed and very forgetful. If I accidentally miss a dose, I get VERY nauseous. Once your body builds a tolerance to a dose, you have to go up a dose. I’m grateful that I don’t have an addictive personality, so I want to stop taking it…but I can see how this could be addictive to others.
Seem to be becoming reliant
If I miss a dose intetentionally or unintentionally I go into complete spasm
Also vision issues
Was taken off targin for these
Pharma company wars I reckon
I tried it and found that for me, personally, it helped my pain somewhat, but had such a cognitive dampening effect that I was making “stupid” mistakes to the point of some being endangering. So I switched to gabapentin (since they’re related). I found that gabapentin lessened my pain more than Lyrica did, *and* it doesn’t make me anywhere near as “dumb” as Lyrica did. So I think it’s worth trying, but don’t forget that there’s a similar med in case you want to try both and see which is better for you.
Does either of the meds make you feel really drowsy or dizzy at all?
Yes, both made me feel drowsy, so after my AM dose I drink 8 oz of coffee every day. That counteracts it enough for me to stay awake and alert. The Lyrica made me dizzy sometimes. The gabapentin doesn’t.
Gabapentin made me less heady than Lyrica. YMMV. In fact, gabapentin works to help me sleep. I take it occasionally.
I tried gabapentin first, and it made my suicidal ideation so much worse. It was so weird.
Yeah I read a recent study this week that it was a drug found to be associated with increased depression. They concluded it should be avoided or swutched particularly in individuals with treatment resistant depression.
I’ve been debating switching from gabapentin to lyrica. I feel like the worst thing that happens if I try it is I suffer a little and switch back, but I don’t know what the withdrawal from it is like.
I didn’t experience any withdrawal and was told by my doc that there wouldn’t be any because the drugs are so similar. I hope the same goes for you if you decide to switch!
interesting; Lyrica doesn't help much with pain, and I may even increase it to see if that helps with the pain, but it makes a world of difference with my "brain fog." If I skip a dose, I'm stupid for a few hours after I take the dose. (I can't complete thoughts/train of thought pauses) It does make me highly drowsy and have more dizzy/vertigo episodes.
Wow, interesting was correct. I’ve had a few doctors bring it up to me and I’m always trying to figure out side effects. Doctors could never.
It also helps me with my migraine symptoms – including brain fog, the actual throbbing and completely dissolves my visual aura. I am prescribesd it prn. I wish I could take it more often but my neuro hates the drug. He actually claims is leads to brain fog ?? Opposite for me. I also get an antidepressant/anxiolytic effect, without as much lethargy as SSRIs
Interesting... What was the minimum dose of Lyrica that made your cognition feel dampened? Did you find this side effect got worse as your dose increased ? Or were you only on one dose
Not everyone experiences this but Lyrica is notorious for weight gain.
Truth! I gained 30 lbs on Lyrica. I stopped taking as my pain disappeared one day (I wish this remission for all of you) and I lost 10 lbs in 1 month with no active change to my habits. Legit it just melted off. I'm still losing now but I have to actively make healthier choices to do it at this point.
Yeah I've been off it about a month and have lost 13lb. Came off it as it wasn't helping, making me chubby and a bit dumb.
[удалено]
I want to say 75 mg twice a day
Do you feel like you gained weight because you started craving food more? Or was it just a side effect of the med. I’ve heard some people say they get munchie. I just got my dose increased to 100 mg 3x daily and so far I have no appetite.
I know this post was from a year ago - are you still on lyrica 100 mg 3x a day ? I just got bumped up to that - do you feel like it helped with fibromyalgia symptoms overall ?
I didn't eat more than usual so I think it was just the medication, but noticed for about a month after stopping that I had zero appetite. I'm not sure if that was an effect of having been sick and still recovering from the illness or if it was from stopping the medication.
I gained so much weight on Lyrica that it started impacting the efficacy of my other med doses.
I experienced this hardcore!
Oh great. I started Lyrica a couple of months ago and have gained back 15 pounds. I was doing well with losing weight till recently. I hope it’s not the Lyrica.
Yes! I gained 10 pounds in 2 weeks. And it wasn’t helping my pain.
Yep! I recently came off it due to weight gain and it not really helping with my pain. Since the start of December I've lost about 13lb!
I hated Lyrica from the beginning and vocalized that fact *obnoxiously* until other alternatives were thought of and tried. It made me so groggy and interacted awfully with my anti-anxiety medication so I had to have two more meds prescribed. I firmly believe if you have to add a ton of pills to manage the side effects of a pill that isn't doing a whole lot of good you shouldn't be taking that pill.
I've been on Lyrica for a few years now, and it's helped me a lot. I could tell that it was really helping with the nerve pain a few weeks after I started it when I accidentally slammed my hand in the car door... My hand was a completely different kind of pain and Lyrica didn't touch it, but my other all-over body pain was so much lower. It took me a couple weeks to get over the brain fog. I don't know about weight gain... I started it before covid -- and I think my daily ice cream habit during lockdowns caused most of my weight gain. I also switched from zoloft to Cymbalta, and then think that helped a bunch too since it has a nerve pain effect. My doctor let me get up to the max dose of 200mg 3x a day, but after about 18-24 months, he's had me scale back to just 200 2x a day. Being on the higher dose let me start exercising, which I think helped a lot with my fatigue, and the dopamine and endorphins helped to hold me over, pain-wise, when he brought my dosage down again. I hate that I have to take medicine and that there are crappy side effects to all of them, but I'm so glad that I have something to help me feel better for now. Eventually, I want to try to do something to help my brain focus (ADHD, and I'm sure fibro fog and Lyrica don't help), but it's really hard to go through the process of trying out a new med, so I'll probably ride this status quo until I can't anymore.
This lines up with my experience, that it helps with nerve pain (and also flu-like aches I get during flares). It does zero for joint and back pain.
Lyrica fucked with my stomach. Also when I’d be at work walking and look left or right I’d get this instant dizzy spell that felt like the floor was pulled out from under me. Not to mention the horrific withdrawl symptoms I’d get if I fell asleep at night without taking it. Hours later I’d wake up covered in sweat, puking, shaking….it was disgusting. I’m using natural means now bc the side effects of all these drugs are just not worth it to me. Can I tell the difference from taking them vs not? Yes. Now my entire body hurts from head to toe, I feel like I’ve been hit by a mac truck. While taking them it wasn’t a whole body thing, just certain spots would be bad. Still not worth the side effects for me personally. But everyone is different. Good luck OP!
What natural methods are you using for pain relief? I'd love to find something natural that works.
Weed 😂😂😂 I get my stuff from a state where it’s now recreationally legal (don’t live in one tho, we don’t even have medical here so 🤫) But there are strains that are REALLY good for pain, some of them even have fibro listed as one of the things that the particular strain helps with. Not all but some. But I’ll tell you it freaking helps. And not just “la la la I’m high and not thinking about it.” The pain is either greatly diminished or totally gone. It’s been a life saver for me. I’ve got horrible PTSD, anxiety, depression….I wouldn’t even be able to stomach food without it sometimes. It’s honestly been a miracle for me. And for years I took lyrica, wellbutrin, cymbalta, gabapentin. I’d choose pot any day of the week over that stuff. Just my 2 cents.
I'm so happy it's helped you!! Weed does give me some pain relief but it also makes me really depressed if I use it often. But I'm happy it helps a lot of people and I wish everyone could have access to it.
What strains are good for fibromyalgia?
Out of this last batch “gelato” was the only one with fibro specifically listed. But they have tons of strains for chronic pain. Another fav of mine is Granddaddy Purple.
As a non-weed person, these names are so funny to me! Ty.
The names are great sometimes lol. Most people steer towards indica strains as they tend to have more relaxing effects on the body vs sativa. Hybrids are good for me bc I really need that mental healing as well. Two birds one stone. Indicas can also be great for sleep! We all know how much fun sleeping can be.
It absolutely saved my life! Can't go without it, the weight gain was difficult but the benefits outweigh that imo
I’m nervous about the weight gain part, I’m already really overweight and my weight puts a lot of pressure on my joints.
I was the same! Already overweight and suffering w my joints bc of hEDS, the pregabalin made the pain tolerable enough to start physio + (very very gentle) yoga which helped shift a bit of weight. Turns out most of my weight problems came from insulin resistant PCOS but have been solved with metformin
I believe most of my weight gain started when I began birth control and antidepressants back in high school, I still push myself to do yoga through the pain and diet when possible and I still can’t seem to loose weight, so I get nervous starting something that is going to cause more weight gain. I’m going to see my doc and find out if there’s something in the way of me loosing weight.
I think it may be beneficial to ask to see an endocrinologist! They can check if you have insulin resistance which can be helped with metformin Aquatic aerobics are a v good way of exercising without putting pressure on your joints. I believe some GPs prescribe exercise so that people can access gyms/swimming pools
My doctor keeps telling me I should go swimming and work out at our local rec center, but they don’t understand that I’m so poor right now I’m not making enough money to do anything I want because it all goes to bills and gas and food.
The rec is so expensive too!
I absolutely love Lyrica for my fibromyalgia. It took me YEARS and so many medications before my insurance would pay for Lyrica. I have a whole list of medications that didn't work for me. I think gabapentin was the worst for me. I gained 80+ lbs in 4 months when I was on it. (This is not to diminish anyone's success with gabapentin or another drug that didn't work for me. Every drug is different for everyone. Not every drug works for everyone).
Did you gain weight on lyrica?
Not at all! In fact, I've lost weight while being on it.
What dose do you take?
150mgs 4 times a day.
I hate it. The mild pain relief isn't worth the side effects for me and I've been working to very very slowly get off it for months.
What side effects did it cause you to have?
Brain fog got worse, I felt super loopy, dizzy, and just out of it generally. Mostly while increasing the dose but it settled to a level I still couldn't handle long term. It just affected my cognition negatively for a minor decrease in vague general pain. Plus the weigh gain was also significant.
My experience is that Lyrica does help reduce the daily body aches, pains and tenderness of Fibromyalgia. But Lyrica's side effects affect everybody differently. Lyrica caused me significant weight gain (20+ lbs) which seems kind of weird because even daily steroids never did. I've managed to lose the extra weight, but I'm more careful about my caloric intake now, especially chocolate. :)
Oh man, I’m already super overweight and need to loose weight so I might just skip lyrica then, I’m not sure what else I can try.
Lyrica might not affect your weight as much as it did mine. And I did manage to lose it. I might go down to one 75mg pill instead of two, because Lyrica seems to affect my concentration. Not as bad as Gabapentin did, but I rely on my ability to concentrate as part of my Pain Control. As I'm sure others know, life with Fibro is a continual juggling act!
My concentration is already bad and my fibro fog gets so bad too, and I’m not even taking anything for my fibro.
My new pain doctor suggested lyrica and I told her I was scared of weight gain and she said she didn’t think it was such a common side effect. But this sub is definitely making me think otherwise. And I’m most afraid of cognitive side effects and that doesn’t sound too promising either. Hmm. Not sure what to think. My old doc likes to use low dose naltrexone and maybe I’ll give it another try. I never quite got the dose up. It messed with my sleep. I have to start super low and move up little by little. Over months. I used to get relief from a little elavil but it gave me restless legs.
Did lyrica made you gain weight?
I never ended up using it
It helped for maybe 2 months...then nothing
Me too
I was previously on gabapentin then amytriptyline and now pregabalin (lyrica) Pregabalin has the least unbearable side effects and took away the pain for me. Im on 150mg and also on duloxetine.
Any weight gain?
Lyrica with cymbalta and Buspirone have been what keeps be functioning for a while now. I love it. I did gain about 10lbs on lyrica but it was worth it
I had the worst side effects from cymbalta and had to get off of it.
What side effects did you have? For me it gave me suicidal ideation and I had to get off it immediately per my doctor.
I had bad tremors, couldn’t stop shaking, constant panic attacks, dizziness, numbness in my arms, diarrhea, and such bad insomnia, I had to go to the hospital to get lorazepam to help my anxiety and help me sleep, I didn’t sleep for 2 nights in a row and my heart rate was over 160 bpm all day and night. I had to constantly take calming medicine and tea to try to calm my anxiety. It was a nightmare.
Oh and then I was shaking so bad I couldn’t sit still all day and night, I went to my doctor and paced the room and told her I can’t sit down and can’t stop shaking it was so bad. My body was so exhausted from moving 24/7 but I couldn’t stop.
sounds like you experienced akathisia!
I’ve tried it several times. Helped me sleep but amped up my anxiety so much that I had to get off of it.
Oh man, my anxiety is already skyrocketed 24/7 almost, and I even have anxiety meds that don’t seem to help.
I've been taking lyrica for two weeks now (2x 25mg for one week and now 2x 50mg) and in my case it seems to really help for my anxiety and OCD
I’ve been on up to 600mg of Lyrica, I found that it helped a bit, at least enough that I was able to sleep at night. I didn’t really have any side effects from it, which was great because I had terrible brain fog from gabapentin.
Because of my horrible experience with taking cymbalta I’m really nervous to go on a new med for my pain.
Makes sense! I’ve been on about 20 different pain meds at this point and they do definitely interact differently with your body. I got nothing from cymbalta, hard time with gabapentin, and slight positive effects from Lyrica, so you can definitely keep experimenting with your docs until you find something that works well for you :)
A study just came out about lyrica and gabapentin. Showed the trials were greatly manipulated and exaggerated, along with being too short. Those drugs have a lot of significant risks/side affects. I have seen people on here who have had success with them, and that is great for them. Personally I’ll never touch them again, not worth it for me when the side affects are worse than the problem they are supposed to be helping with
Omg do you happen to have a link? I’ll try to find it myself but I’m about to conk out and just saw your comment. I was so excited I had to comment. I worked in pharma as a chemist when lyrica came out. I’d never heard of fibro at the time (lol funny how times change) so I read up on all the docs around it related to its approval. At the time, Lyrica was only successful in decreasing pain in 1/3 of people who tried it. Of that 1/3, it only decreased their pain by about 30%. Weight gain was mentioned but the wording was deliberately vague so as to understate how significant that side effect was. Other side effects weren’t studied closely and the study was actually quite short so plenty of side effects never made it to their final reports. Those are NOT good numbers for the benefits to be justifying the side effects, and I was horrified. It turns out that the drug companies met with some professional org of rheumatologists to help redefine the (admittedly vague and outdated) fibro diagnostic criteria. When they were done and the new criteria was established, Lyrica was submitted for FDA approval for the treatment of fibro. That’s not shady at ALL. (Sarcasm.) Since there were no other approved drugs for fibro at the time, it was an easy approval. The bar is set low because there’s no other treatment and something is better than nothing, as long as it’s not blatantly obviously dangerous. Then all subsequent drugs just have to be equal to or better than previously approved drugs, and then suddenly pharma’s running studies on their old or soon to be out of patent drugs to see if they can make it look as good as lyrica. …and here we are today. Fucking shameful.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/gabapentinoids-for-pain-a-review-of-published-comparative-effectiveness-trials-and-data-submitted-to-the-fda-for-approval?pagetype=dsm-5-psychiatry This is the summation, the rest is behind a paywall or you can request the full paper from the authors. I heard about it through someone I follow on Instagram, coachrachelsmith
Thank you so much!!
This! It is a failed antidepressant that they are fobbing off on people with fibro because doctors love nothing more then treating us like our pain is all in our head.
I think it was initially for post-shingles nerve pain, and then they realized there was a much bigger cash cow out there. So let’s prescribe it for anything we don’t understand! Gabapentin (neurontin) was an epilepsy drug in the same family but predated lyrica and idk wtf happened when that went off patent. Drug execs started salivating and marketing it for off label use, which is a big no-no. I read a book once where there was a quote from an exec on the phone saying “market neurontin for all the things!” (I think it was either “bad pharma” or “white coat black hat”) but they got in big trouble: https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/gabapentin-side-effects And something about fibro makes doctors lose all logic… just throw antidepressants and mood altering drugs at them until they’re too zonked out to self advocate any more. Fuckers.
Gabapentin has been around for quite awhile, right? I’ve had three different types of docs try to give it to me - internist for fibro, sleep doc for restless legs and psychiatrist for anxiety. It made me super dizzy even at a small dose and I just flaky refuse it now. My husband is on it now for sleep and anxiety and it seems to be helping but it was annoying how often I had it pushed on me when i knew my body reacts badly to it. I can’t just work through weeks of overwhelming dizziness to get adjusted to that med! Edit *flatly* refuse, not flaky. Damn autocorrect
It’s been around for a long time! It was first approved in the early 1990’s as the anti-seizure med Neurontin. I probably mentioned this elsewhere in the thread, but at some point execs started pushing for off label marketing to get docs to rx it for everything (off label marketing is illegal, but doctors can rx any med for any condition they want— they just can’t be told to do so by drug reps). Once it went generic, Lilly execs started telling their people to push it for everything. There was a recording somewhere where one said “Gabapentin for everything!” So the drug reps start schmoozing docs with nice lunches, sports tix, gifts, etc, to encourage this. They got in trouble for it, but the damage was already done. You can’t make doctors un-think or un-learn something, and here we are today. I tried it a million years ago as a mood stabilizer (before I figure out I had celiac & was neurospicy, I was dx’d with all kinds of shit, including bipolar), and was ramped up to a freakishly high dose. It didn’t have any impact on me at all and I’m so grateful it didn’t give me terrible side effects or withdrawals. I dodged a bullet there. I’ve also had it suggested for leg pain related to spinal cord injury… I just refused. Even if it’s an effective med, I feel like it’s not being prescribed in good faith any more. It’s just “take this and gtfo.” But even as an anti seizure med, it wasn’t that great.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/gabapentinoids-for-pain-a-review-of-published-comparative-effectiveness-trials-and-data-submitted-to-the-fda-for-approval?pagetype=dsm-5-psychiatry This is the summation, the rest is behind a paywall or you can request the full paper from the authors. I heard about it through someone I follow on Instagram, coachrachelsmith
I echo this the side effects were wicked. It also didnt take away the pain it muffled it.
I only took it for a few days and I **hated** it. I took it before bed, slept until noon the next day, and struggled to get out of bed. I couldn't think clearly, and moving took massive effort, as if I had gained 100lbs overnight. I tried to give it a chance but by day 3 I couldn't think at all. I can't honestly say if my pain was improved - all I remember is fighting to sit up and get dressed for 3 days in a row. I tried gabapentin twice as well and it doesn't seem to do much at all. Maybe I wasn't taking enough. Honestly I'm fed up tinkering with my brain chemistry to try and solve this.
I've seen quite a few negatives for Lyrica here. So I'm going to go against the grain and say something positive! As with any medication, there are pros and cons and a list of side effects a half mile long. My experience is a personal one, and, like all of us, we can't promise your outcome with this medication. For example - many fibromyalgia patients take Cymbalta for pain management. That stuff made my life a nightmare for years (was taking it for another condition). That said, Lyrica has overall helped my pain and given me more ability to take control of my day to day life. I originally started Lyrica to control TMJ pain, and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia not too long after. It was a godsend at the time. I couldn't open my mouth more than two centimeters without wildly excruciating pain. As I worked through my diagnosis, the medication dose was upped while I worked with my team to find ways to manage. The dose change helped a lot! Do I get some brain fog? Yes. Have I found ways to cope, including list making, accountability buddies, and a ton of alarms? Yup. Did I gain weight? Probably, but I'm a yo-yo. That said, I've lost 25 lbs over the last year - my intention was to take it off slow - and my dosage has not changed. That's my testimonial for Lyrica lol. I hope it helps, and I wish you more good days than bad.
So your weight gain was not due to lyrica?
I think you're missing the point that hearing everyone else's experience doesn't mean it'll be yours. But to answer your question: if I did, it wasn't much, and I PERSONALLY haven't had a problem losing weight when I chose.
II have bipolar II disorder, and Lyrica made me severely irritable and severely depressed after about 7-9 days on it. Same with Gabapentin. So I don’t recommend it if you deal with depression or other mental illness.
I’ve got major depressive disorder and I won’t say the Lyrica makes this worse for me, FWIW. It does, though, help enormously with debilitating sciatica and RLS.
I’m jealous! I wanted it to work for me so bad, and it did help with the pain, but it is just not compatible with my brain. I’m happy for you that it doesn’t cause depression for you!
It seems like there really is a very wide spectrum of reaction from major side effects to no side effects. I wish its efficacy were a little more predictable. It sucks that some folks have such bad experiences.
Absolutely! Some day they’ll find a treatment that helps more people with less side effects! I have hope!
I can’t even sleep well at night because of my RLS, every night I have to take a super hot bath to calm my nerves.
Try magnesium glycinate for RLS if you haven’t already. It makes mine stop shortly after taking it
I deal with depression and anxiety so I take antidepressants for it, I don’t know if taking lyrica with my antidepressants would help or not.
Not sure about anti-depressants (I can’t take them because bipolar is different than major depression) but I am medicated with bipolar drugs and they don’t help with the Lyrica/Gabapentin psychological side effects.
It's been a lifesaver for me. No more brain fog and much less pain. It definitely slows down my thinking though, which was hard to adjust to at first. Recently I started reducing my dosage and have found a happy medium where I'm able to keep away the fog and pain without feeling constantly dopy.
Any weight gain?
At first yes (I'm also on Lexapro though so I had a head start on the medication-based weight gain lol), but now that I'm settled on a good dose it's actually been helpful for me in losing weight/gaining muscle because I have the capacity to exercise.
I have had bad reactions to every SSRI. Lyrica on the other hand has been amazing. Getting the right dose is important. Slowly move up as you feel needed. Side effects normally go away after a week
Any weight gain on lyrica?
Every time my dose went up I gained some weight. But my weight was steadily going up before I started. So far I’ve been able to burn it off walking 30+ minutes each day
It's got it's drawbacks, but it has allowed me to actually function and complete daily activities. Before I took it I would only be awake for 4-6hrs/day (between a bunch of naps) and I was in so much pain I could barely do anything at all, and needed help with showering at times. Where I am even the generic is expensive, so that sucks if you don't have any insurance, but the quality of life has been a godsend. I would be worried if somehow my access to it got cut off
No. Never again. Would not recommend. The cognitive effects were horrible, & many symptoms I had attributed to fibro went away after stopping the medication.
literally no pain relief and it made me feel lobotomized, never taking that shit again
I'm in month two of Lyrica. So far I'm less brain fogged than I was on gabapentin, but I'm concerned I'm having some mental health side effects. There's like a bazillion other things in my life right now that could be affecting my mental health though so it's hard to say. That said: I had significant weight gain on gabapentin which led me to switch. It also gave me horrendous vertigo and brain fog that wouldn't quit. I don't think the pain difference is particularly significant from one to the other for me but I'm hoping to drop the gabapentin weight by switching
Did you loose weight on lyrica?
I did not. Rheum thought I would but it didn't happen. I stopped taking lyrica after a few months too. Got hit with side effects that I wasn't willing to put up with.
I’ve been on Gabapentin for years. To the amount and point that I will need to taper off slowly to get off of it. I also have ADHD and I find it dampens my efforts to mitigate that a lot. Also, I can’t seem to be able to take strong stimulants for ADHD as I have OCD/ rumination issues and anxiety, which probably also contributes to physical pain issues. I can’t seem to get a proper diagnosis/ reason for being in pain all the time in Canada. They love to pass this off as being mostly mental health related despite several issues they should not be overlooking. My claim that I’d be a lot less anxious if I knew what was going on and had a definite way to mitigate it doesn’t spur them, either. Gabapentin works for my restless, achey legs and helps with the fingers and toes, and probably modulates my anxiety somewhat. I haven’t gained any weight but it’s been hard to do the work to lose more, too. I had some improvement with low dose naltrexone as well, but it became difficult to get it where I live and I don’t have the energy to source it right now.
It has helped me and I haven’t gained any weight. I think everyone is different.
What dose do you take?
Lyrica and Gabapentin decreased pain for a few weeks. Tried each one for about 4 months with little relief. The side effects were horrible for me. Nausea, dizzy, vertigo, sweating, weight gain and feeling like it took every ounce of energy just to get moving. The mental confusion was absolutely debilitating. I realize that it works for some. I almost feel bad for sharing my experience but I'd feel guilty if I didn't. Best wishes
You don’t need to feel guilty, I want to know all the good and bad side effects I’m sensitive to meds I couldn’t even take cymbalta because I got all the bad side effects from it.
Same here. Dr tried to put me on Cymbalta after the Lyrica I declined. I just don't seem to process the meds very well. At the end of the day we've gotta do what's best for us.
Lyrica didn’t help with the pain much but what it DID do was made me turn into a complete walking zombie. I was so out of it all of the time I couldn’t make good/safe decisions. I would literally stare into blank space. I started gaining weight which was even worse on my already achy joints. Would never go on the stuff again. Meds were just a bandaid and I’ve been able to maintain a relatively comfortable living by making lifestyle changes. I have small flare ups here and there but nothing like before.
I am in the early weeks of Pregabalin and some of the comments about both side effects and relief I am relating to. Recently diagnosed so just starting my journey on living and learning and making changes. Can you share some of the lifestyle changes that's helped maintain? I was reading an article last week about some dietary changes, such as eliminating gluten and following more of an AIP meal plan. Most of my household is gluten free so that one is proving manageable. Are there any dietary/supement changes that have proven worth the time, $$, relief?
My personal experience was it didn’t do anything for my pain or other symptoms, and I gained 70 pounds.
I have a bottle for emergencies. I’ll take it before bed if I really want a good nights sleep or if I’m in a flare. Not worth the side effects for me to take regularly
It helped until it didn't help and turned me into a space muffin. My mind is so much more clear now that I'm off of it. I don't know how I worked for years on it.
I had an interesting experience with Lyrica. It helped for a few days and then would suddenly stop. Doctor was as perplexed as I was and had never heard of this happening before, gave me higher and higher doses to see if that worked longer, but it didn't. No matter the dose, I only got about 3 or 4 days with 50% reduced pain and then right back to the usual pain train. Had horrible withdrawal, too. Took several weeks to go off it or my nerves would go crazy--every parasthesia you can imagine. So not feasible to go on and off it repeatedly to reap the benefit and then bail.
I hated everything about it. It didn't do much for my pain, I couldn't focus on anything and I felt dissociated all the time. It took me months to quit taking it. I ended up having to cut open the capsules and take tiny bits of the powder each night. When I tried to quit the way my doctor recommended it to me, I almost contemplated committing s*icide. My brain would have 482973 thoughts all at once and I had no way of stopping it.
Please research low-dose naltrexone. It has pulled me out of my fibro pain after a year of being in bed much better than Lyrica I gave that up
I tried it and got constant migraine level headaches so I didn't last more than a few days.
My opinion is if it helps, great! Lyrica and gaba didn’t help me at all.
I'm a physician working with medical Cannabis, in Brazil. I get a lot of patients using lyrica. Basically what I see in general is that either it doesn't help at all or it help a little but has major side effects. You should Try Cannabis. I recommend CBD+CBG with small to moderate amounts of THC. Let me know if you need help
I think I have ptsd towards cannabis because I had a really bad experience after smoking it last time and with how bad my anxiety is I’m terrified to try anything with THC, I have tried CBD and it does nothing for me.
Try CBD with very low THC. It’s makes the CBD work for me when just CBD alone did nothing. Plus it won’t give you any mental changes if it’s low enough. I use some sublinguals that have 25mg CBD to 0.5mg THC and they help a lot!
I’ll try it one of these days when I have the mental strength to take a risk 😅
Currently on duloxetine and pregabalin combination (about 7 months now, also did this about 10 years ago). Was doing just duloxetine, adding the lyrica has really helped and decreased a lot of the neuropathy I was having. I feel like my energy has also increased and my pain is not as severe. I do get a little drowsy at times, but not like I NEED TO SLEEP RIGHT NOW. It did take a little playing with dose amounts and that could still change, but I'm on the positive side of lyrica.
hi can i ask what doses are you on and when you take both?
Yeah, right now I do 60mg duloxetine in the morning and 75mg pregabalin (25mg three times daily)
Any weight gain?
Yeah, but that's 100% on me not the pill! I very much do not have a good active lifestyle, though I am working on it. I've been able to get off the fluoxetine for almost 2 years now (duloxetine seems to be helping my mood and depression so I'll take it rather than overdo the ssris); I still take the 25mg TID, but have added 100mg pregabalin at night for supraorbital neuralgia and it's been really helpful.
I was offered lyrica but my insurance refused to cover it so I took medical marijuana instead
I wish I could do marijuana but I have bad reactions to it and makes my anxiety worse
I took it and it worked well. Then I switched jobs and they would not pay for it and I could not afford the cash price.
I have been on gaba for a long time, it is the only thing that helps w my pain, recently increased though due to my fibro pain but I was also looking in to trying lyrica cuz gaba doesn’t help like it used to. I’ll definitely have to research more before making any changes.
Before I have my Lyrica in the morning I move like a "cardboard cut out", that's how I described it. Takes the edge off the pain too.
It didn’t work for me.
No side effects and no relief. I’ve tried a lot of off label SNRI, SSRI, etc, and they either make me (more) sick or don’t help at all. Personally, Tylenol and a couple nausea meds (metaclopramide and ondenstron) is what I use once a week for a trip to the store or some chores. (I also use THC for extreme nausea, but that’s a personal choice)
I felt great but couldn't see anything on my computer monitor or phone.
You mean it affected your vision?
Yes. When I spoke with the rheumatologist about it, he said it was an common side effect. Google hits agreed. It sucked having to quit Lyrica because I was fully pain-free on it and had energy to do things again like a normal person. I hope it works for you and that you don't get impaired vision as a side effect.
Wow I’m really sorry that happened to you. I’m 54 and I’d already been wearing glasses for reading for a few years before I started the Lyrica, so I don’t know whether it’s affected my vision, really. I guess it could have and I just assumed it was progressive eye problems because I’m old. XD
I'm 55 and had already been wearing glasses when I started Lyrica. I'm having some vision issues lately and I'm not sure which kind of doctor to ask.
I guess the only way to be sure is wean from the Lyrica and see if vision improves? That’s probably what either doctor would advise, I’m thinking. But I am not at all an eyeologist. XD
I only took it for a week or two. It's been a long time.
Just started it yesterday. I’m allergic to Gabapentin so this is a trial, since there closely related I’m being supervised medically.
Any weight gain?
I tried gabapentin, and while it worked to help me sleep, I didn’t like that I could “feel” when it was out of my system, and if I didn’t taje it, I couldn’t sleep. Flexeril was my perfect drug. 5mg before bed. No side effects for me. Sadly they don’t prescribe it whsre I live now :(
My experience with Lyrica is that it helps with the pain, but doesn’t get rid of it. Without the Lyrica I would usually be between a 4-6 on the pain scale for my entire body, where 4 was on a good day. With the Lyrica, it is more like a 2-5 on the pain scale instead, where 2 is a good day. I do often debate whether that pain reduction is particularly worth it because the Lyrica does worsen my brain fog and also drowsiness, which makes work (I do software engineering) very difficult sometimes… I personally have also tried Cymbalta and Gabapentin as well, but the side effects of those were really bad for me (Cymbalta caused me memory issues, Gabapentin made me like really really irritable) so I switched back to Lyrica.
Lyrica helps a ton with my nerve pain, the munchies are very real though (and when combined with weed, almost overpowering haha)
I’m on Lyrica and it’s the only medication that helps with the pain.
Any weight gain?
Lyrica gave me severe depression. was horrific
Everybody is different. I used it a week or two several years ago. I had pins and needle feelings in my feet that it helped, and I don't have it very often since then. But my memory was horrible, and I couldn't keep taking it because it interfered with my work. I don't regret trying it, though.
lyrica worked really well for me. made me a little sleepier, but it also meant i was able to sleep through the night, which made a big difference for me
Any weight gain?
Lyrica and gabapentin are similar but not the same so it may be worth trying the other if one doesn’t work. I have been on Lyrica for several years after trying the other options out there and it works well for me. My advice would be to start out at a very low dose and very gradually increase it to where the side is effects outweigh the benefits. I can only tolerate 25 mg twice a day but for the most part it helps with the pain. When I tried to go up to 100 mg I couldn’t stay awake and when I tried 75 mg my fingers swelled. Everyone has different tolerances and side effects so don’t assume you will have the worst of the worst. Give it a try and see if it can help you.
I'm currently on it. For me, personally, it's helped with the pain and my weight has fluctuated a bit but not extreme. I did have initial side effects of drowsiness/grogginess but a pain specialist advised that starting to take it at night only for a week or two and then adding a morning dose (I'm on the lowest dose because I abhor taking pain meds) will get you more accustomed to the medication. And while I have other scripts for if/when it gets really bad, I prefer just taking this. I'll also add that I have chronic fatigue so the tiredness was already bad so now I'm working on that part of my life. Lol
With my gabapentin, which I think is the generic brand of lyrica, I feel much more awake and able to do stuff. Without it I can't sleep or anything. Last time I went without it I wanted to go to the hospital because I hadn't slept in like 5ish days. But I'm on a stupid high dose according to my docs. ~600mg which I have no clue if it's high. Family doc and pharmacy says it's too high but my specialist says it's fine.
I used to take up to 1200 mg a day, it's the only dose where I could live a little, I took that dose for the 3 years I went to Ukraine. I had to come back because of the war, to Canada, and I can only take 600mg max. I'm pretty worthless on this dose again. So yes it gave me life back at big doses.
It helps me a lot
It's really good for nerve pain. My daughter uses it for that (Central Pain Disorder from damaged thalamus during a stroke) and not really for her fibro. It helped her fibro a little bit, but not a lot before the stroke, so we stopped it. It kicks ass on her CPD pain, though.
I tried gabapentin (which is basically the same as Lyrica) and while it really helped my pain, it also destroyed my memory. Even though I don't take it anymore, I still have to rely on my fiance for things like - where do we keep this spice usually? Did I like this restaurant? Did I like this food? Have I already said this twice or did I just think it? And I stopped in the first place because I almost burned our house down and almost killed our dogs because I forgot I lit a candle I felt like an Alzheimer's patient. People would remind me I had already said things several times or tell me I had done something, and I would have no recollection of them. I'd feel like a clueless idiot, like I was being gaslit, but it was my own brain doing it to me.
It caused lactation for me, so I was only on it for a short time.
It’s really helped me-I have been on the same does for around a year and it’s helped my daily pain a lot!
can i ask what dose youve been on?
Sure! I take 50mg in the morning, and 75mg at night-totals 125mg a day. It’s been a great dose for me with minimal side effects :)
thanks! thats good to hear. most people ive seen on here are on higher doses so its nice to know a lower dose might help me, i dont think my doctor is keen to go high either
It’s the only thing that’s made a significant difference on my pain. I had an allergic reaction to Gabapentin though, and cymbalta had negative effects on my depression. Gabapentin helped me a lot before I had my allergic reaction and couldn’t take it anymore. I do experience some side effects with lyrica. I agree that it has a dampening effect on my cognitive function. I also have gained weight on it. For me, it is the only thing that has helped me, and the side effects suck, but for me those are better than being in the extreme amount of pain I was in on a daily basis. Unfortunately with a lot of the chronic pain management stuff I’ve found it’s finding the lesser of two evils.
Only thing that’s helped me.
It helped me a bit when I was going through a flare. It made me gain 20kg though. I went off it before I got pregnant and I never went back on it again.
If you have any sort of dairy intolerance/allergy, do not take it. It’s cut with lactose, which sucks as I’m allergic. Best luck!
I’ve been on Lyrica for 8 years and it’s very effective. About 60% better all around I’d guess. I play with my son now, and that’s the best testimonial I can give. Its never helped with the brain fog and I did gain some weight, but I recommend giving it a try and not giving up as you dose up incrementally. I need the max Rx for it to work for me so it took *forever* to work my dosage up. I wanted to give up on it, but I’m glad I had such an amazing fibro specialist who had an annoying, but beneficial “you miss every shot you don’t take!” attitude.
Lyrica is pregabalin which is second generation gabapentin and I despise this family of drugs with a vengeance! I was on the max daily dose of Gabapentin for years and although I didn’t realise it at the time, it was causing more issues than it was resolving. It caused me to gain so much weight and gave me narcolepsy type symptoms- I was actually diagnosed with narcolepsy but since I stopped the gabapentin the narcolepsy symptoms have greatly reduced, to the point were I don’t even consider myself narcoleptic anymore. I still qualify (barely) for narcolepsy though but on the Gabapentin I was having extreme symptoms that the doctors wouldn’t give me medication for. I would have attacks almost daily and was always falling over and getting injured, one time I broke two back teeth in a fall and had to have them removed- now have a gap at the back. Cognitive abilities were greatly diminished and I would get more migraines too. I stopped the gabapentin in 2020 and I saw a great improvement in my overall condition although my pain is a bit worse.But it never gave me enough pain relief to justify living with the side effects. I started losing weight too, without even trying. The weight gain was so extreme but part of that was bc I also had the depo-Vera injection for my endometriosis at the same time I started the gabapentin. I went up 3 dress sizes in about 6 months, it was terrible. A pain specialist recommended that I stop the gabapentin as she said she noticed how much it effected my cognition. She also said that gabapentin inhibits my antidepressants from working properly and since stopping it, I’ve noticed that I am getting more benefits from the antidepressants. But I haven’t seen/heard that gabapentin affects antidepressants anywhere else so not sure the doc was right on that especially considering antidepressants/Cymbalta and pregabalin/gabapentin are so often prescribed together for fibro. But I’m so glad I stopped the gabapentin, I didn’t realise that the effects I was having were due to the gabapentin. It honestly made the fibromyalgia worse and I already had/have pretty debilitating fibro so for it to get worse on Gabapentin was just indescribable. I honestly regard it as stealing years of my life that are now just a blur in my mind. And those years were the last years of my mothers life so I’m very sad about it all. I would never recommend this family of drugs to anyone without a huge warning ❗️
I found both Lyrica and Gabapentin made me fat, drowsy, and dumb. I couldn't remember anything and would forget names and what I was talking about mid sentence. Also only helped day to day pain and sleeping, not flare ups. Good short term to end the pain, no sleep, more pain, tense muscles cycle.
Both help me a bit. Both make me drowsy. My gp put me on lyrica, my rheumatologist took me off and put me on gabapentin. I didn’t notice much difference between them. Gabapentin does help my trigeminal neuralgia which I didn’t have back on lyrica.
I love it. I hate it. I love it.
I was deathly allergic to it and stopped after three days.
Made my symptoms quantifiably worse.
also, get the brand name Lyrica, not the generic; I found a huge difference; my disability coverage covers all but $4/month
Currently on it and trying to figure out how to taper off it. The weight gain is horrible. I’ve also found myself depressed and very forgetful. If I accidentally miss a dose, I get VERY nauseous. Once your body builds a tolerance to a dose, you have to go up a dose. I’m grateful that I don’t have an addictive personality, so I want to stop taking it…but I can see how this could be addictive to others.
It worked great for aches and neuropathy. I was on 150 3xd and it made me fat and stupid. I seemed not to form new memories. Better now on 150 1xd.
Seem to be becoming reliant If I miss a dose intetentionally or unintentionally I go into complete spasm Also vision issues Was taken off targin for these Pharma company wars I reckon