Pregabalin

[Catbennie]

Have you read the bad press about Pregabalin, stating it has caused about 3,000 lives. People are getting addicted to it very easily, I do find this quite troubling. I am on Gabapentin which of course is exactly the same as Pregabalin.

[Kaarina Administrator]

Hi Catbennie, there is already a thread on here about this that was posted this morning. healthunlocked.com/rlsuk/po...

Joolsg added a link to a more balanced article on the above thread. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-677...

[SueJohnson]

This was already posted today - see the post "Pregabalin Dangers"

The chance of getting addicted to pregabalin or gabapentin is quite rare and is usually people with an addictive personality and those that abuse it.

[Madlegs1]

My 90 yr old granny sips the odd glass of sherry of a Sunday afternoon.

Is she going to become a raging incoherent alcoholic ?

Let's get a bit of perspective onto the stage!

Certainly not by reading lazy, slanted unresearched rubbish that goes by the name of modern journalism.

[ChrisColumbus]

There is a problem with illicit street abuse of pregabalin in the UK: Joolsg alluded to this in her response on the other thread.

I know of one UK authority that is only very rarely prescribing pregabalin for RLS because of the perceived severity of the problem in their area. (They will prescribe low doses of gabapentin, but still prescribe dopamine agonists 🫣).

(They're also very reluctant to prescribe low dose opioids because of potential abuse - they struggle to differentiate between sleep deprived oldies and younger addicts).

[Grandy1962]

My daughter works with homeless people and people who have mental health problems and she tells me that both pregabalin and gabapentin are used as street drugs now. But people who abuse them usually take a whole strip in order to get high. As they are doing this several times a day usually they are taking a lot more than most people are being prescribed for medical use.

[Catbennie in reply to Grandy1962]

Oh dear that’s awful, these sort of drugs always get abused, but where do they get them from?

[Grandy1962 in reply to Catbennie]

According to my daughter there are some people who will con their GP into prescribing these drugs just so that they can sell them on.