Pregabalin feeling horrible

[Kr2250]

Started pregabalin a few days ago and feeling so groggy with horrendous headaches? How long should I give these a go for? Tried so many meds butrans patch were the best but gave nasty skin burns after a couple of days I one with little side effects so that I can function with children!

[BlueMermaid3]

Hello Kr2250

I don't think I have had the opportunity of welcoming you to the forum

If you take a look at our mother site you'll find lots of info about Fibromyalgia on there fmauk.org

With regard to Pregabalin also known as Lyrica it usually takes around a good couple of weeks to start working, and for the horrible side effects to wear off.

It is a good medication that is actually an anti epilepsy drug that is used a lot for Fibro sufferers.

There is one little known side effect which is that it can cause quite severe low mood. I don't want to worry you, but it is a good idea to just monitor how you are feeling mood wise.

I would try to persevere if I were you. But if you do decide to stop taking it, you must speak to your GP about weaning off it.

Even if you have only been taking a medication for a couple of weeks it is important not to suddenly just stop taking it. You need to wean slowly off it to try to avoid any withdrawal symptoms.

Good luck. I genuinely hope that it works for you and you are able to persevere with it.

Take care of yourself

Lu x

Administrator

[Bemoresquirrel]

Hi, welcome to the forum. It took me three months before I felt any benefit on Pregabalin and that's been the same each time I've been told to increase the dose. The awful side effects usually last about a fortnight, before thing start to feel normal again. Take care x

[rosewine]

Welcome to the forum.

If I am honest the first two weeks were hell, started to get better the third week and have been on it 6 years now and wouldn't be without it. I cannot tolerate a high dose though and was started off very gently increasing by 25mg a time as I am one of those people sensitive to alot of drugs. Those patches also caused me ulcerated skin allergic to the adhesive.

As BlueMermaid3 says you just have to be aware of some of the side effects as they can vary from person to person.x

[nikki56]

I have been taking pregabalin for over a year and I would recommend, if you can, to persevere with it for a bit longer as the symptoms your are feeling do subside and i feel it really helps with my nerve pain. I have taken it in two different ways, I started of taking 1 150mg tablet 4 times a day after building it up from 75mg for 3 days and this helped for about 4 months but then found it not as effective so I now take 300mg twice a day which is the daily maximum of 600mg per 24 hours. This along with using amitriptlyne at night helps keep the severe nerve pain in my legs at bay most days. I still have some bad days when I have flare ups in my fibromyalgia but I find the side effects of pregabalin easier to deal with than gabapentin, but recently it has been suggested by my gp to do 6 months using pregabalin and then when the effectiveness of it starts to wear off then change to gabapentin for 6 months or so, mainly as you can take a much larger range of dosage of gabapentin so can tailor it better to manage my pain where the max dose of pregabalin is only 600mg per day.

So if possible persevere but if you really can't manage the side effects ask about gabapentin and increase the dose every few days until you can get the right balance of pain relief and less side effects .

Hope this is some help and if you have any other questions then I would be happy to try and help you if I can.

Good luck and I hope you start to get some relief soon as of all the pain I have on a daily basis, nerve pain feels like torture if you can't get on top off it

[TheAuthor]

Hi Kr2250

I sincerely hope that you are feeling as well as you possibly can be today? Welcome to the forum and it is wonderful to make your acquaintance.

I am so truly sorry to read about your problems with Pregabalin, and if this persists or gets any worse I would talk to your doctor about it. They are a good medication (in my opinion) as long as the side effects do not outweigh any benefits?

I want to sincerely wish you all the best of luck and please take care of yourself my friend.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken

[Kr2250]

Thanks all for your support, I've been awake most of the night with night sweats and still have pain in my back this morning. It's good to hear the side effects wear off as I was worried as I have two children primary school age and yesterday my husband was home to look after them as I felt so ill and fell asleep on the sofa for a few hours during tea time but like I say hubby was home to cook them tea. he's back to work tomorrow for the weekend and it's hard looking after little ones whilst feeling this awful. I'm going to stick with it and hope I feel better soon. Thanks again to all of you it really does help x

[TheAuthor in reply to Kr2250]

Good luck my friend.

[Ccupcakes]

Kr2250, hi there, I take pregabalin and have done so for about a year now, I am also very sensitive to new drugs so having exhausted many other possibilities, when preg. was offered I decided to be really gentle with myself, at the time I was in the middle of a major flare, wheelchair jobby, if you know what I mean, and the restless legs, sleeplessness and total lack of temperature control were really dragging me down so I was very depressed.

I was prescribed 150mg daily split into 2 doses with the option to increase.

I started off taking just two 25mg caps a day morning and evening, over about right weeks I increased it to full 150mg. Not the max. dose but sufficient for me. The headaches and general 'stupid' feeling only lasted about an hour a day to start with and it stopped very quickly, the effect was quite dramatic tho, and now I would not be without it. Interesting about the Butrans, I use them but can not put them on my upper back, they cause soreness, but upper arms are fine! Weird huh?

Persevere but be kind to yourself.

C.c xx

[Kr2250 in reply to Ccupcakes]

Thank you for your reply I was totally beside myself not knowing what to do for the best! I've tried butrans all over my upper body but sadly after being fine for a year and a break from them they started to burn but now it's after 2 days. X

[Lindz]

I am taking Lyrica's Pregabalin and have been for years now - I would not want to be taken off it as it is worth its weight in gold to me. However, I am very sensitive as regards medication. Once when my tablet's were given to me they had changed from Lyrica's to "the cheapest available" and the new ones made me very ill. I went to see my GP and he altered my prescription to read Lyrica. I went straight back on to it and all my symptoms just went overnight. If you carry on with your symptoms I suggest you go back to your GP, and explain your symptoms and ask for Lyrica. Obviously you may have side effects for several weeks (or may go overnight like me!). My GP told me this can happen - some people are more sensitive than others to how the drug is made!

Hope you feel better soon xx

[Kr2250 in reply to Lindz]

Thank you for your reply, it sounds like they are a good medication once you get past the side effects. I really appreciate you all taking time to respond as it really does help to know how it affects other people x

[Janet28]

Hi Kr2250 sorry you are having these side effects, it is a common side effect but as our lovely BlueMermaid3 says, doesn't last for long. A lot of people do suffer with headaches with fibro, due to tense muscles & spasms. I have pasted a link below so you can have a little look about how to help & various types of headaches.I do hope you manage to get some relief soon my friend, this heat doesn't help.

beta.nhs.uk/symptoms/headache

Luv Jan xx