Pregabalin - Withdrawal symptoms

[BobbyDog]

It is not very often that I start a thread here at NMP, but I thought I better share the experience of withdrawal from Pregabalin with you folks. This is my 3rd or 4th attempt in coming off this medication, it does help reduce my anxiety symptoms, but the weight gain and bloated feeling all the time, combined with my lapses in memory, just became too much to bare.

I was taking 300mg a day for over a year in a split dose and have managed to get down to 100mg split dose, I am stuck here for all eternity.......... The reason being - withdrawal symptoms, constant itching all over my body, that even an antihistamine or 3 would not relieve. Heightened anxiety and agitation, insomnia, cold sweats and hot sweats, day and night. I am not trying to frighten anyone off this medication, my experience could be a one off entirely. All medications have their side effects and withdrawal symptoms, and some people like me are overly sensitive. But I just wanted to share my story as it has been a very trying few weeks for me. :)

[purgatory]

Hi BobbyDog.

Well done on getting to such a low dose after being on it for so long.

I'm at the moment starting to reduce my pregabalin I have been on 375mg for 18 months and by the end if this week I would have reduced it to 300mg split over 3 doses 9am-3pm-9pm. So in 3 weeks I would have reduced 75mg and now I plan to stay at 300mg for a month and then reduce again in the same way.

I have been put on Prozac so I'm using that to help the withdrawal process and I hope to be completely off pregabalin in 4 months.

I will update on how I am going.
Thanks for your thread

[liketearsinrain]

I was taking 300mg a day for over a year in a split dose and have managed to get down to 100mg split dose, I am stuck here for all eternity.......... The reason being - withdrawal symptoms, constant itching all over my body, that even an antihistamine or 3 would not relieve. Heightened anxiety and agitation, insomnia, cold sweats and hot sweats, day and night. I am not trying to frighten anyone off this medication, my experience could be a one off entirely.

All medications have their side effects and withdrawal symptoms, and some people like me are overly sensitive. But I just wanted to share my story as it has been a very trying few weeks for me. :)

Thank you for your post. I registered here just now to reply specifically to your post related to pregabalin/lyrica (I don't suffer from issues related to panic though but your post was v. helpful as it addressed the withdrawal issues I'm having so I hope members here don't mind me posting).

I was put on lyrica this in April this year, alongside morphine for pain relating to ulcerative colitis pain/issues that had flared up despite an initial sub-total colectomy two years ago.

Initially on 300mg a day (150mg am/150mg pm) this was upped to 450mg/day split following a big surgery I had in May. So I was on it for just 4 months, 3 at those higher doses.

After successfully tapering off of morphine that I'd been on at really high doses without much of an issue at all, and having read people had stopped lyrica/pregabalin immediately I tried that in end-July. It was a foul withdrawal, and after 3 days decided to taper properly with doctors advice etc.- I found though I was in a really bad state with very similar symptoms to your own by Sunday evening, so took 50mg just to try and sleep - it helped, but barely, so I took 75mg am/pm today and will go back on 75mg to reduce and taper more slow.

I hate this electric tingling all over, the creeps up with the mildest temperature change. ANd I have cold sweats too... Just all the symptoms you describe, with one other - nausea! I find that I have that, mostly in the morning, but at spots through the day, and it's really, really horrible as travelling on the train to work now I feel like I am going to throw up... also hate not sleeping properly. I'll wake up at like 3/4 am and not be able to get back to sleep, and have really bad anxiety and depression... hoping this passes!

[Mark13]

Hmmm, I think I must have been lucky.

I went from 600mg to zero in 4 days with no obvious withdrawal, after being on pregabalin for 4 months.