View Full Version : Pregabalin Withdrawal
This is a follow on thread from "pregabalin ...at last":D
So now up to 10mgs of Citalopram which has lifted the small amount of depression I had and I have not needed Lorazepam for 2 weeks. Now is the time to start reducing pregabalin as the Citalopram should keep the anxiety at bay along with the depression.
Pregabalin SE's were tolerable until I realised that my anxiety was breaking through again at Xmas. So I did not see the point of carrying on if another drug could tackle both depression and anxiety together. SE's were; brain fog, short term memory loss, massive weight gain, blurred vision, fatigue.
I have been on 400mgs a day of pregabalin and for the last 2 days have reduced to 300mgs taken in one dose at 6pm.
Withdrawal symptoms have been so far; nausea, itching, headaches, stomach grumbles ALL in the afternoons.....1 hour after I take the evening dose these effects disappear..... oh! And I have started dreaming a lot just before I wake up (which is very odd for me).
The positive effect is that already my thinking is much clearer.... sharper thought patterns....which I did not realise had been quite so bad before.
Will keep this thread updated.
sarah
---------- Post added at 18:29 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------
....oh yeah and some odd chest pains:huh:
Hi Sarah,
Good luck with the withdrawal. It might be better to split the dose to even things out.
Hi Hanshin,
Yes I will split the dose when I get my new prescription next week. But I have some 300's still left so trying that at the moment.
Felt a bit anxious this morning and still getting head/neck pains... oh and also intermittent chest pains. But convinced this is withdrawal anxiety and will settle down. If it doesn't then I will ask GP to give me some 50mg capsules so the reduction is less dramatic.
Sarah
Thanks for posting about this Sarah, it is really useful to see.
Good luck with your withdrawal.
Xx
Barnabas75
29-03-14, 14:19
Hi Sarah,
I wa only on 350 for 4 months.I reduced by 50 for a week until I got to 200.Then I reduced 25 for a week and so on until I stopped.Maybe I was not on it for a long enough time but the withdrawal was not bad at all that way.all the best.
Most studies on these drugs only last 4 - 8 weeks. At the end, the medication is stopped, and generally withdrawal symptoms are minimal. This then gets printed up to say that the drug has little or no withdrawal effect.
However, in real life, people are taking these medications for months or years, and withdrawal can be a serious issue which is often ignored by prescribing doctors.
Most studies on these drugs only last 4 - 8 weeks. At the end, the medication is stopped, and generally withdrawal symptoms are minimal. This then gets printed up to say that the drug has little or no withdrawal effect.
However, in real life, people are taking these medications for months or years, and withdrawal can be a serious issue which is often ignored by prescribing doctors.
Exactly this and it is such a scam. The drug companies really should be forced to do longer term studies on medications like pregabalin, because they know intended users of this drug will almost certainly be on them for more than 8 weeks!
Pregabalin seems to be talked up as a great medication for anxiety and even pain but a bit of internet research shows it is quite common for people to gain tolerance to it and then suffer from withdrawals.
I hope your withdrawal goes OK - just don't let the doctors rush you off it too fast, doing a slow taper is fine. :)
Well a good day today... up early, walk dog, Grand prix, coffee with family, fatigue at 1pm....sneaky nap., mow lawns, walk dog, tea,....... then aches and pains and a little bit anxious this evening. Head feels clear.... no valium:)
Sarah
---------- Post added at 20:21 ---------- Previous post was at 20:20 ----------
Day 5 on 300mgs
Ah so Dr has told me to only reduce by 50mgs a day for 2 weeks at a time..... so going to follow her instructions.... back up to 350 a day for a couple of weeks then:)
Sarah
nicola1980
31-03-14, 17:51
Hi Sarah, good luck with your tapering, so pleased cit is working for you :) x x
Hi Sarah,
Sounds good. Keep us posted.
Actually as this is day 7 of my reduction and I feel ok I am going to stay on 300mgs for another week and then start reducing by 50mgs. I feel OK, apart from a couple of odd moments so don't want to waste a week of withdrawal to have to start again:shrug:
I think that's a sensible thing to do-if you are not having too many problems on that dose then there doesn't seem much point in increasing it again.
All the best x
Thanks Kelly,
How are you doing?
I'm not too bad thanks. I still only take 75mg per day as I totally freak out when I'm on medication-that low dose helps me sleep at night and it also kind of controls my mind a bit from completely running away with itself but it stills means I have lots of anxiety in the day which I'm hoping to control more with CBT and other non medical methods.
I fell asleep one night last week without taking my tablet and I woke up at 3.30 feeling terrible! I felt itchy all over and really panicky which I'm guessing are withdrawal symptons, I was shocked at how just by missing one dose I could get this and it kind of makes me nervous about fully withdrawing from pregabalin in the future.
I'm pleased your withdrawal is going ok so far, I personally think the slower you take it the better.
Good to hear its helping you Kelly. Don't worry about withdrawing in the future you can go down to 50mgs for a while...But also don't worry about staying on it. Some people can take it for years.
Sarah
Thank you, nothing is ever easy lol!
So feeling well and even stopped smoking (again)... have now reduced pregabalin to 250mgs a day....I have loads of energy and my HA has almost gone.... depression zero....... hope everyone else is doing well.
Sarah
Hi I am also coming off Pregabalin. Was on the maximum dose of 600mg per day and I think it helped a little with my anxiety but I wanted to come off it because since taking it I noticed I couldn't concentrate properly at work and making mistakes. Like I couldn't think straight.
Another reason is that I think the Pregabalin is the cause of me getting stomach bugs. My doctor said I have IBS but I feel its the Pregabalin that's causing me to often feel sick, get diarrhoea as before I started taking it, I never used to get these horrible stomach bugs.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
So I have managed to cut down from 600mg to 75mg per day in 6 weeks. My doctor suggested reducing very slowly but I wasn't getting any major withdrawal effects so decided to cut down earlier then expected. (Ii know Pregabalin is notorious for severe withdrawal effects)
Hoping to come off it all together in a months time and hope I still won't get those awful tummy bugs. Interesting to see if Pregabalin was the cause of it
I am now down to 200mgs a day and on 12.5mgs of Citalopram. So I will go UP with the Cit and DOWN with the pregabalin. Anxiety seems to be still mainly under control but I have been feeling a little "low" so hence the increase in Citalopram.
sarah
Hi sarah,
I cold turkey withdrew from benzos and then pregabalin. Week three after your last dose of lorazepam is when you feel that due to the half life even sporadic use has a three week withdrawl crash. Even if you have to take to your bed a single dose puts you back to square one. I did a week of pregabalin reduction and threw that in the bin.
Both drugs work on gaba receptors. The vivid dreams are because you do not reach rem sleep on gaba receptors. The clear mind is your body finally getting to Rapid eye movement sleep which enables dreaming and proper sleep.
you will hit a wall then bounce back. The effects of gaba receptor drugs takes 2 years to undo. It is not a steady improvement good days will come more frequently and then out of the blue a day of horror. They become more sporadic as time passes. I'm 1.5 years down the road.
good luck stay strong. Your doing wonderfully and its worth it. Don't give up. You may hit a wall and have to stop the reduction and stabilise and let your brain chemistry catch up. This isn't defeat.listen to what your body says feel right. Detoxing and fluid and fibre intakes important your body does need non chemical assistance to adjust its working hard to reset its natural balance. I recommend a punchbag to release the mental side. Its lovely when you can focus to hit it. Your anxiety will hit when the gaba receptors fire up. The quick tolerance is due to the resistance built up already due to lorazepam working in similar ways. Just as that stopped working effectively so does pregabalin. It stops your natural happy synapses in the brain working you made them gaba junkies with the meds. So the aniexty you first took them for returns with no way to pick yourself up. Don't revert to similar meds it just restarts the 2 year clock for the gaba receptors to reset. A slight bandaid lorazepam for a panic attack will actually bring about more issues. Give it six months and you will feel your old happy self. Proper sleep and dreams are wonderful. Took me so much longer. Well done stay strong your doing the best possible thing. Ps this is not meant to concern I was high risk for diabetes and lorazepam and pregabalin increase chances.Ask your gp to test for diabetes it can be brought on by the stress hormone cortisol attacking beta cells in your pancreas that make insulin. If you put on lots of weight and have increased your waist this is a risk to. I'm sure I was just high risk and the added risk of meds and weight brought on the inevitable. But it explained my emotional state and aniexty. Your sugar fix at xmas with unrecognised early stage or pre diabetes might be a possibility or paranoia on my part. But a simple blood test can stop it developing if you catch it early. Hope thats helpful and I honestly don't mean to put a dampner on your amazing achievment Han x
Thanks Han,
I don't understand the "sugar fix at Xmas" bit though and can you explain more about the gaga receptors stuff?s
I don't have any symptoms of diabetes
Sarah
Sorry babe I forget to explain some things. Most people eat a lot more carbs at xmas. That kind of blood sugar increase can be a problem if you are developing type 2 diabetes and high blood sugar effects moods and emotions. You probably haven't if you find you start drinking lots of fluids this is another sign. All phsyciatric drugs effect different brain receptors. They are grouped that way. Your body releases chemicals naturally hormones that attach to particular ones. To counteract the effects of mental health imbalance the meds you take work on different ones. Gaba is the one lorazepam works on. Its believed pregabalin does also. But it was created for diabetic neuralgia. Nerve damage caused by constantly high blood sugar. So its has a calming sedating effect which is essentially a side effect for a medication for a different purpose. Didn't sell well because others work better and cheaoer. Thet then sold it for other things. Its rarely used but now popular to get patients off benzos. Because nice has ruled benzos use undesirable. So they nag you off lorazepam give you pregabalin because it calms the btain cells that get aggitated when you stop using lorazepam. If a heroin addict compared withdrawl from either drug. He would choose a heroin withdrawl because benzos effect you at a cellular level in your brain and it does literally hurt. Not all are so badly effected. But some will never stop those benzos because withdrawl is absolutely excruciating and you can easily think your going mad. Your clinician gave your Gaba cells a chance to get through by numbing them now you don't need it. Its likea crutch but the yucky side effects make everyone ditch them. The docs love it when you do costs about £3 a pill x
Thanks for the explanation Hans,
Some of what you say I know but I was interested in your views on the Gaba receptors. I am withdrawing form Pregabalin as my anxiety was creeping through again, so my body was clearly getting used to it. I only use 0.5mgs of lorazepam when my anxiety peeks (about once a week). The plan is for me to slowly up my Citalopram dose (I am very sensitive to drugs) and get that working, whilst withdrawing from the pregabalin. Sip I think what you are saying is I could be getting "low" because as I reduce the the pregablin my "happy" synapses have yet to start working again? So the Cit working on the serotonin levels doesn't compensate for that?
What I ma hoping is the Citalopram will take over from the Pregabalin and lorazepam so I can get rid of the the pesky things.
Sarah
GABA (gamma amino butyric acid - not much different from vinegar, actually) is the brain's natural "slow-down", braking neurotransmitter. When it is released (naturally) a person feels calmer as it is taken up by "GABA receptors".
Benzodiazepines (diazepam, lorazepam, etc) work by attaching to GABA receptors and making them stay open more, so more GABA can get in, and we feel even calmer.
However, in time (and this varies from person to person) with continual use, the body may decide it doesn't need to produce as much GABA. Anxiety creeps back even when benzodiazepines are taken, is even worse if they are stopped. Note that this doesn't occur for everyone, but the anti-benzodiazepine lobby likes to make out it does.
Despite its name, pregabalin does not affect GABA or GABA receptors. It works on the other side (the release side) of the synapse, binding to part of calcium channels involved in the release of neurotransmitters. This has a calming effect by slowing the release of excitatory neurotransmitters.
allotmentgirl
07-06-14, 08:32
Hi Sarah, you kindly answered a query I had some time ago about pregabalin. I am wondering how you are doing with your reduction programme? I never felt well on pregabalin so a couple of months ago I started a reduction programme of 25 mg a week
I was OK for a while but have now come to a grinding halt. I have reduced from 450mg to 275mg. Daytime anxiety is high, palpitations, burning chest and waking in a sweat. Also grumbly intestines and loose stools to name but a few odd bodily sensations! Sorry to be so graphic! Has anyone got any advice as to what to do next. I have held steady now for 2 weeks but can feel no improvement.
I wonder how I will ever get off the drug!
I also take 30mg mirtazapine at night.
Regards to everyone
Stay on the dose you are on until you have steadied a bit more. I am now on 200mgs a day and have been slowly increasing my Citalopram ( now on 15mgs). This elms to be working for me. The plan is that when I come back off my holiday I will increase Cit to 20mgs and start reducing pregabalin again... this seems to be the best combo for me. I don't know how Mirt works for anxiety. You could ask on the Mirt section.
#sarah
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