Targinact

[Flora-Rose]

About 4 weeks ago I had an appointment at the Barberry Centre, Birmingham and was prescribed Targinact 2.5mg tablets and am taking 1 tablet at 10.00 pm daily which has eliminated all night time RLS. 😆 Instructions from Consultant are “to reduce pregabalin to target dose of 250/300mg. Concurrently, gradually increasing Targinact to a maintenance dose of 2 or 3 tablets per day, every 12 hours over the next 4 months”.

I have reduced pregabalin from 450 to 375 at present. My questions are - At what point should I take a second Targinact tablet, and at what time? How low should I go with the pregabalin?

Thanks as always and many congratulations on the recent successes.

[Joolsg]

Targinact should be taken 12 hours apart. The leaflet explains it. So take 2.5 at 10am and 2.5 at 10 pm.When you are down to 300mg pregabalin- monitor the RLS. If you have symptoms - then take the 3 x 2.5mg targinact pills every 8 hours.

[Flora-Rose in reply to Joolsg]

Thank you Jools. That makes sense.

[e365]

Hi there, I am going through the exact same process. I am reducing from 300mg pregabalin nightly. Every doctor has different procedures but this is what my doctor has had me do so far.. First I had to reduce my dose to 250mg for two weeks. I didn’t really notice a difference in my pain. I think Pregabalin hasn’t helped so much with my pain. Once I reduced down to 200mg after two weeks I started taking 5mg targinic. This Tuesday I will reduce preg to 150mg and take 10mg targinic. So for every 50mg reduction of Pregabalin I add 5mg targinic. So far I haven’t had any issues. I take both medications at the same time. Although I’m not pain free it has reduced the intensity of my pain.

I had tried targinic 2x daily a few years ago but it made me extremely tired during the day. My neurologist recently looked it up and it is possible to take it once a day even though most doctors recommend twice a day. I don’t have so much pain during the day so I’d like to stay drug free while I’m awake. I was still tired during the day the first few days i started adding targinic but now I’m ok. I know some people may have mini withdrawal and that’s why it’s recommended twice a day so I’ll see how it goes but at the moment I’m doing fine.

[Derry323]

I have been taking Targinact for several years now. I am generally OK during the day because I am constantly on the move while at work. However my rls is a problem in the evening and throughout the night, so I am now taking 10mg at 2pm and 20mg at 8.30pm. It's not working as well as it once did and I'm contemplating asking the consultant to consider buprenorphine.

[Flora-Rose in reply to Derry323]

I asked for buprenorphine, but no joy! Is your gp prescribing Targinact? Mine can’t as on the black list for my health trust, so have to get repeat prescriptions through the consultant.