Pregabalin

[Keith1231]

I have been slowly increasing my does of Pregabalin. I am up to 275mg each night 2hrs before bed. I feel very sleepy and the sense of floating when I walk. To me this is a good sign that I will sleep. I have 25mg to go to reach the recommended does. During the day I am not too bad providing I get my sleep. I have found even if I nap during the day I can still sleep at night. However, I have put on so much weight. What can I do about this without going to the gym or taking long regular walks. Arthritis being the issue here.

[Madlegs1]

If you are getting enough relief from the present dose, why increase?

[Keith1231 in reply to Madlegs1]

That's the thing. I don't have RLS, to a point that my arms and legs are jumping about as before. However, I am not sleeping at all well. Its a bit like before but without the RLS. I am confused. Perhaps its another sleep issue that I have got and Pregabalin is just compounding my situation.

[SueJohnson]

You might want to try switching to gabapentin. Although they are basically the same drug except you need to divide the doses, and the side effects are basically the same, some people find that the side effects that bother them on one don't bother them on the other. Multiply the pregabalin amount by 6 to get the correct dose which in your case would be 1650. Since you need more than 600 mg take the next 600 mg 4 hours before bedtime as it is not as well absorbed above 600 mg. And since you need more than 1200 mg, take the next 400 mg or 500 mg 6 hours before bedtime. If you take magnesium, even in a multivitamin, don't take it within 3 hours of the gabapentin as it reduces the absorption of the gabapentin. If you take calcium don't take it within 2 hours for the same reason. You can switch directly.

Pregabalin is more likely to cause weight gain than gabapentin.

Pregabalin makes you hungry. The other obvious solution as I am sure you are aware is to carefully watch what you eat.

[Keith1231 in reply to SueJohnson]

I will speak to my Dr, I am going away for two weeks on 31st March so I don't want to change medication during that time. I will stay on 275mg pregabalin until I return. Thank you.