Pregabalin and Intestinal Cramps

[coldfeet7]

I came off of carbamazepine (due to fixed drug eruptions) and after a while the trigeminal pain reappeared. I started Pregabalin (Lyrica), taking 50mg (two 25mg pills hours apart) for two days and woke with very bad intestinal cramping. Bad enough for me to search and see that some have this and it remits when they stopped.

Anyone here have a similar experience?

[Wiggler]

Hi,

This is not intended as specific medical advice as I’m not qualified to do so but just my experience for what it’s worth..

I built up to 275mg of Pregabalin a day and have been on it for about 18 months, which works well for me, however, as you’ll see from the stated side effects below, it can affect your gastro intestinal system. I occasionally have bouts of diarrhoea but may or may not be related to Pregabalin. However, if it is, in my opinion/experience, it far out ways the positive effects. It takes a few weeks to not only build up to the right dose but for the side effects to lessen. But if in doubt go back to your GP for specific advice for your particular experience. Good luck with your continued journey!

Side effects

Like all medicines, pregabalin can cause side effects although not everyone gets them.

Common side effects

These common side effects may happen in more than 1 in 100 people. They are usually mild and go away by themselves.

Keep taking the medicine but tell your doctor if these side effects bother you or do not go away:

headaches

feeling sleepy, tired or dizzy

diarrhoea

mood changes

feeling sick

swollen hands, arms, legs and feet

blurred vision

difficulties with getting an erection

weight gain – because pregabalin can make you feel hungry

memory problems

If you have diabetes, pregabalin can upset your blood sugar control. Monitor your blood sugar more often for the first few weeks of treatment with pregabalin and adjust your diabetes treatment if you need to. Talk to your doctor or diabetes nurse if you want more advice on what to do.

Serious side effects

Very few people taking pregabalin have serious problems.

Call a doctor or call 111 straight away if you get:

thoughts of harming or killing yourself – a small number of people taking pregabalin have had suicidal thoughts, sometimes after only a week of treatment

severe dizziness or you pass out

hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not real)

problems going to the toilet, including blood in your pee, needing to pee more often, or constipation

Serious allergic reaction

In rare cases, it's possible to have a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to pregabalin.

[Munroist]

I don't recall any posts here about pregabalin causing intestinal cramps and I certainly didn't experience any myself. I do occasionally get cramps myself but that is related to nerve issues I believe and I'm not now on pregabalin. Your dose is also quite low (which is a good thing if it's doing the job) so that feels less likely to be causing a side effect. I know you asked for people with similar experience but, for perspective, from what I see on the site it doesn't seem common.

[coldfeet7]

Thanks for your perspective.

It is a pain to try to understand if symptoms are related to drugs. Such a pain. I have never liked the guess work of "try this drug and see if it bothers you". Makes me realize that the full understanding of how things work is actually just a cloud of probabilities based on a statistically significant sample size.

Maybe AI one day will be able to model the complexity of the full body... and we will see the era of "drugs" for what it was.