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ok I'm starting it. I read every page on the internet about it now I think.
I have emetophobia so I'm so scared it might cause vomitting. even though it doesn't say that anywhere and I've read hundreds of reviews not mentioning it. the shrink said it's never made any of his patients sick in ten years. what more do I need to reassure me?? stupid phobia. grr
giving me more anxiety taking it than my original gad was lol.
*swallow*
I'll let you know how it goes
all the best, i certainly never had any ill side effects from it and had problems with every other pill i had tried
oh well it's nearly given me a panic attack from worry about it but not noticed any effects yet.
had to take a diazepam to calm down. Grr oh well at least I'll know if it has any bad effect even if I don't know if it has any good ones
---------- Post added at 21:59 ---------- Previous post was at 20:51 ----------
well I guess I'd have had some bad effects if I was gonna have some by now. been a few hours
wouldn't I?
---------- Post added at 23:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------
3 hours or so now. no side effects I think. except panic attack from worrying
---------- Post added 12-08-16 at 01:26 ---------- Previous post was 11-08-16 at 23:18 ----------
well after the panic attack passed I felt vaguely happy and chatty. but maybe I was happy cos the panic attack ended.
no side effects that I can see after 6 hours.
thanks for the help in chat when I was freaking out.
tired now zzz
Glad all seems to have went well for you
Heya Skymaid,
I recently also started Lyrica. It's been about a week at 150mg, take it for GAD and low grade OCD along with other meds. How are you doing so far? I've taken this med before and it has done its job, thing is I can't remember how long it took for it have effect.
Best of luck.
hiya. I didnt dare take another for a while. theres an other tread a made called thinking of trying again in the lyric section.
ive been on 50mg x 2 per day for a couple of weeks or so. side effects werent too bad in the end (little dizziness). the anxiety of starting them was far worse.
I cant honestly say ive noticed a huge difference yet. certainly going out doesnt seem any easier. but im below the therapeutic dose for anxiety yet anyway I think. from the trials ive seen most people needed to be on at least 200mg a day before getting a good benefit.
going up adose on monday.
do you take 75mg twice a day? is it helping much?
im not really even sure when to take them. I take 1 with breakfast and one with evening meal.
Yes I take 75mg am after breakfast and 75mg when I get home from work. I really can't say if its helping although I'm just a week in. Only side effect I get is a high sensation but not a good high....
My last anxiety episode was on January 2015, I was put on the exact meds I'm taking right now (60mg Duloxetine, 1mg Clonazepam, 150mg of Lyrica and 25mg of seroquel before bed time) and it did help me up to the point where I was quitting my meds, I got as low as 30mg Duloxetine (slowly started stopping it), 1 mg of Clonzepam and 12,5mg of Seroquel.
Well I think that was my mistake! I didn't consult my Psych (although he would have probably told me that is was ok) and my work got really stressful (and it's going to get worse or maybe its my GAD doing the talking) to the point that it caused me this episode. So here I am again crossing fingers and hoping that I will get well soon and not freak out at every stressor that life throws at you :shrug:
I would ask you doctor as to when to take them :D
The half-life of pregabalin is short (about 6 -7 hours), so three times a day may be a good idea when starting out or changing a dose. On the other hand, I do recall seeing a study that said twice a day was just fine - so approximately at 12 hour intervals.
For me, sometimes I take most of them in the evening to help prevent waking anxiety the next day. But if I feel anxiety building through the day, I start earlier in the day. It's what works for me - not a general recommendation.
you think I should go for 50mg with breakfast then 100mg at night or just 2 75mg, or 3 lots of 50mg?.
tbh these 50mg tablets just seem to take the edge off. maybe its a bit weak.
Just experiment and see what dose times work best for you, as long as the daily dose is constant. Even with the short half-life, a certain level does build up in the body.
Otherwise, I would discuss increasing the dose with your doctor, particularly if you think it is helpful but not fully effective. I do suspect some early tolerance does develop after the first few days, but after that I think it is possible to get a stable therapeutic dose.
ok going up to 50mg three times a day after talking to the dr. she said 75 twice wouldnt make much difference.
then in a week 100mg twice a day. then see how I am in a week or so after that
Good luck with the new doses.
50mg x 3 didn't seem much different at all tbh. No noticeable improvement in anything and no side effects either. I'm still on a puny dose after all.
Starting on 50mg in the morning then 100mg then 50mg in the evening today.
Bit nervous taking the red coloured 100mg tablet but hopefully i'll be ok, had nothing too nasty yet.
100mg x 2 next week or in a few days if this goes ok. I'm kinda keen to get on with it a bit now and get into the 300-400 range where hopefully the "magic" starts to happen.
im doing 50 in the morning then 100 mid afternoon then another 50 before bed in fact.
slightly unsteady for a day or two but pretty mild
planning on going to 50 in the morning 100 and 100 in the evening very soon.
I think its helping. feels like im on a little diazepam all day. just taking the edge off. not really helping my sleep tho. I have to drink more or I get a really dry throat.
hopefully some starting this finds it useful
ok after a few days on 250 I think im starting to notice it working. I went out for a 15 walk which would normally make me quite anxious. It didn't really increase my anxiety much. I just felt a bit dopey. I guess thats an improvement.
Maybe im starting to hit that the therapeutic range at around 300mg.
going up to that in a couple of days
up to 100 x 3 now. I had a great sleep and felt almost normal until about 6pm then anxiety came on and wouldnt leave me alone.
i'll stay on this dose for a week or so now.
still no noticeable side effects. bit drowsy maybe.
plenty of random symptoms when my anxiety came on but I dont think theyre relevant to pregabalin since I had them before starting it
i feel like im really starting to get some benefits now.
my weight is almost back to what it was before my "breakdown" and i have periods where i'm pretty calm throughout the day. I still feeling a bit jittery/shakey/twitchy between doses i think but maybe thats imagination.
The shrink said i can keep increaseing by 50mg a week up to 600mg a day.
If i get to a dose say.. 450mg a day and feel great i guess i can just stop there? I mean i don't HAVE to go to 600mg do i? he didn't really say. I guess i could ask. just wondered what fellow pregabaliners think.
SmilingAlbert
03-11-16, 21:01
Glad to hear it Skymaid.
Remember, the half-life of Preg is, while much shorter than the SSRIs, is very long compared to valium etc.
It doesn't 'wear out' anything like as quickly, and because it doesn't it enables the body to get a better rhythm going, and means that taking in a manner a la valium is not always correct: it takes longer to spool up, but the delay pays off further out.
Everyone is different, I am fine on 150 to 225/day. As with all such drugs, it should be kept to the lowest dose where it actually works. If I were you, I'd stay a while at the dose you are for a while and see how you get on; occasional anxiety will come, but sadly this is part of life which no medicine can do much about. Just knowing it's anxiety - rather than some greater force you can do nothing about - can be useful in observing and ultimately ignoring it.
That way, you will still have 'headroom' with this. Going to 600mg per day is the top limit here, which you can have if you really need it. And be happy you are in the UK - in the US, this would cost you £200-300 per month, rather than £9!
Good luck,
Albert
thanks albert. Im thinking I might tweak my afternoin dose up a bit because I always seems to get some weird anxiety for no particular reason in the evening.
I dont think i'll go as high as 600mg that sounds like a lot of anything. we'll see I guess
This is a very interesting situation.
Although the half-life of diazepam is quite long, the half-life of pregabalin is quite short.
Nevertheless, people often take diazepam for short-term problems, and pregabalin for long-term ones.
The only rationale that I can think of is that benzodiazepines are both fast-acting and intense, whereas pregabalin is neither.
MyNameIsTerry
04-11-16, 05:52
This is a very interesting situation.
Although the half-life of diazepam is quite long, the half-life of pregabalin is quite short.
Nevertheless, people often take diazepam for short-term problems, and pregabalin for long-term ones.
The only rationale that I can think of is that benzodiazepines are both fast-acting and intense, whereas pregabalin is neither.
The answer is that there is more than one half life. Because Benzo's are fast acting, you look at the Distribution half life. That's around a few hours max for Diazepam, it's typically one hour though. It also has an Absorption half life which differs slightly.
The half life you have been thinking of is the Elimination half life which is just a measure of your body getting rid of half the dose.
Meds like antidepressants are slow acting meds and so other than their absorption rate and peak time, we only think of how long they are in our bodies doing their work. fast acting meds can be largely doing nothing for the majority of their Elimination half life.
Pharmacokinetics
Absorption
After oral administration >90% of Diazepam is absorbed and the average time to achieve peak plasma concentrations is 1 – 1.5 hours with a range of 0.25 to 2.5 hours. Absorption is delayed and decreased when administered with a moderate fat meal. In the presence of food mean lag times are approximately 45 minutes as compared with 15 minutes when fasting. There is also an increase in the average time to achieve peak concentrations to about 2.5 hours in the presence of food as compared with 1.25 hours when fasting. This results in an average decrease in Cmax of 20% in addition to a 27% decrease in AUC (range 15% to 50%) when administered with food.
Distribution
Diazepam and its metabolites are highly bound to plasma proteins (Diazepam 98%). Diazepam and its metabolites cross the blood-brain and placental barriers and are also found in breast milk in concentrations approximately one tenth of those in maternal plasma (days 3 to 9 post-partum). In young healthy males, the volume of distribution at steady-state is 0.8 to 1.0 L/kg. The decline in the plasma concentration-time profile after oral administration is biphasic. The initial distribution phase has a half-life of approximately 1 hour, although it may range up to >3 hours.
Metabolism
Diazepam is N-demethylated by CYP3A4 and 2C19 to the active metabolite N-desmethylDiazepam, and is hydroxylated by CYP3A4 to the active metabolite temazepam. N-desmethylDiazepam and temazepam are both further metabolized to oxazepam. Temazepam and oxazepam are largely eliminated by glucuronidation.
Elimination
The initial distribution phase is followed by a prolonged terminal elimination phase (half-life up to 48 hours). The terminal elimination half-life of the active metabolite N-desmethylDiazepam is up to 100 hours. Diazepam and its metabolites are excreted mainly in the urine, predominantly as their glucuronide conjugates. The clearance of Diazepam is 20 to 30 mL/min in young adults. Diazepam accumulates upon multiple dosing and there is some evidence that the terminal elimination half-life is slightly prolonged
Thanks so much for this, Terry. It explains a lot that wasn't aware of.
ok the gp said to stay at 300mg for 4 weeks since she said the dose can take a month or so to kick in.
the shrink said I CAN go up to 600mg but not that I should or when
i'll see how it goes.
after a week or so on 300mg I dont feel mega calm or anything. going out is a bit easier but I still got pretty panicky going to the doctor. and I still feel weird/shakey in the mornings.
we shall see.
Going up to 450mg now for a bit of extra umpf(?).
Ive gone up 50mg everyday 2 days but stopped at 400mg because i was getting a bit too wobbly and sleep. I'll probably go up to 450 in the next day or two.
Feeling noticeably calmer on 450mg vs 300mg
That's good to hear,sky.
Good luck with the next increase :)
This is kind of crazy, I have emetophobia and have had Lyrica sitting at my house for about a year terrified to even try it because I'm scared it will make me sick even though I've never read about it making anyone sick and I've read so much stuff about it. SSRI's are a no go for me and if my anxiety/emetophobia doesn't improve soon I'm probably going to die.
Hi Djkhaled,
Welcome to NMP. As you say, pregabalin is not usually linked to symptoms related to emetophobia, and if reduces your anxiety it may be helpful. It may be worth a try if you are getting to your wits' end.
SmilingAlbert
11-12-16, 12:23
hi djkhaled,
The NHS here specifically says this:
"Pregabalin is less likely to cause nausea or a low sex drive than SSRIs or SNRIs."
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anxiety/Pages/Treatment.aspx
I never have felt sick as a result of taking it. Indeed, nausea as a result of anxiety was a major problem for me - Preg cured that.
Good luck,
Albert
Hi Skymaid,
I hope you are going okay on the increased dose. You said it made you feel sleepy and wobbly as well as calmer. Hopefully, the sleepiness and wobbliness will wear off but the calmness remain. I did feel less coordinated for some time at first, but not now.
Hi hansan. Yes its wearing off already. The dry mouth in the mornings is back though.
djkhaled: I have emetophobia too so i couldnt take ssri's either. My psychiatrist said he's never heard of anyone having any emetophobia related symptoms in 10 years or fo of prescribing it. The reason he suggested it was because of the mild side effects. My gp backed that up too. I was still really scared do they gave me a few 5mg diazepams to take when i started so i didnt care do much. That worked really well. I still got nervous but the diazepam stopped it turning into a panic. After taking a couple of doses i stopped worrying.
Although i got a bit nervous going up to the red capsules because i stupidly read on the internet the different colour pill capsules can effect the stomach differently. Which is probably rubbish - i hate the internet sometimes.
I did get some side effects but thetly were very mild: slighty clumsy, little bit of blurry vision but those went in a day or too (very mild). The ones that persisted a bit were a dry mouth in the morning (bottle of water by the bed) and constipation (bit more fibre fixed that and i got that anyway since i get ibs)
I went up another 50 to 450mg yesterday. No noticeable side effects. Slept like a log.
Good luck with your increase. I've got to 75mg of Amitriptyline as I find SSRI's too hard to tolerate without a lot of help (sleepers and benzos) and my GP is just not supportive. I've been going up from 10mg for a couple of weeks and am so glad to be at therapeutic dose but feel really rubbish today.
Hi Skymaid,
Best of luck with it - you should soon find the level which suits you best.
Well i'm up to 450mg. 150x3 a day. No side effects. Unfortunately not much improvement if any. I'll go up to 600mg in 2 weeks. Hopefully that'll do the trick.
I really don't want to be one of the people it doesn't do much for and have to try something else.
Or maybe the 450mg hasnt kicked in yet. I've read varying reports of it taking 2-4 weeks to start working.
Well 450mg seems to be helping now. Maybe it did take just over 2 weeks to work. I'm definitely having periods of calm and only mini panics at worse (its almost lke my brain struggles to think fast enough to work itself into a panic unless i really really try).
Of course it could be the mindfulness, cbt, time or the vitamin d tablets (bloodtests showed it was low).
Hi Skymaid,
It's probably a combination of all of those - the meds can calm you and help you focus, and the cbt can help you reorganise your life and get things in perspective.
Good luck with both of them, and I hope they continue to work for you.
Well 450mg seems to be helping now. Maybe it did take just over 2 weeks to work. I'm definitely having periods of calm and only mini panics at worse (its almost lke my brain struggles to think fast enough to work itself into a panic unless i really really try).
Of course it could be the mindfulness, cbt, time or the vitamin d tablets (bloodtests showed it was low).
This gives me some hope, I'm about a week into 300mg and hoping it starts to do something
Yeah 300mg had an a little effect it anything. 450mg seems so good right im not sure whether to go to 609mg or not. We'll see. I actually played 9 holes of golf on boxing day. First time in nearly 6 months ive felt able to do that.
Hi Skymaid,
So good to hear that you were able to get nine holes of golf in - and also with the extra pressures at this time of year. I hope you have continued good luck at 450 mg per day. There is no need to increase if you are happy at that level.
The gp and shrink seem to think since im having a positive effect i should go up to 600 over the next week or to. At 550 as of today. I seem to only have little blips of anxiety or mini panics. I haven't had a full blown panic in a while now and it wasnt as bad.
Still on the odd diazepam but only 5mg 2 or 3 times a week but im working on doing stuff without it - im just not that confident being out a long while without it but hey - a few months ago i could barely walk round the block.
I feel a bit dumber when im coding (work) but maybe my brain is tired / rusty.
Played another few holes of golf but gave up after 4 holes but not due to anxiety.. due to it being 2 degrees and freezing rain coming down ;)
i think i might as well go up the final 50mg to 600mg since 4 days of 550mg doesnt seem to have had any additional side effects.
im taking 150 100 150 150 a day which is a pain so i'll probably switch to 3 x 200 when i next go to the doctor
she did mention it might be a big "urgh" coming off them (her words lol) but i guess i'll worry about that when i want to stop them.
150 x 4 is a pain. Ive completely forgotten one a few times. Nothing horrendous happened though.
Switching to 200 x 3 on monday. 600 seems a nice dose. I can get anxious on it still but its hard to get to full-on panic. Its a nice effect. I havent noticed any drop in IQ or word loss. I can still remember small details and words no problem and im back to my proper coding work now.
I hesitate to say wonder drug but for me its very nice. Im only using diazepam a couple of times a week now and one or those is for therapy (the other is to help with a new exposure task). Can't remember the last one i took for panic. Thoroughly recommended.
Hi Skymaid,
Glad to hear that the new dose is working out. If three times a day dosing works, then you can probably try twice daily dosing (2 x 300 mg).
SmilingAlbert
27-01-17, 15:13
Great to hear a good news story, and thanks for the updates. Glad it's helping. As has been discussed before, the problem with the internet is that people post negative stories, while the many positive stories never get told as people just get on with their lives.
Preg doesn't work for everyone, certainly - but for those it does help it can really improve lives.
Albert
I still haven't given it a shot, really happy it's helped for you, I am still struggling with panic attacks and emetophobia and still have lyrica sitting in its packet waiting for me to take it but I just can't get the courage. I just take 7.5mg valium a day but it doesnt do much for me anymore.
Yeah anxiety and emetophobia is a horrible combination since it makes it hard to take the standard medication (citalopram/sertraline etc) due to the risk of stomach related side effects.
If it helps my doctor said she'd never heard of lyrica ever making anyone sick and she'd prescribed it to hundreds of people. My psychiatrist said he the same and he'd been prescribi g it for 10 years. Low risk and mild side effects were one of the reasons he prescribed it
You can get 25mg ones if you want to really start low too. I started on 50mg and had pretty much 0 side effects really
Have any of you found a weight gain with thus medication? Or massively increased appetite?
Well...hope so. I've actually been given it for nerve damage/pain.
Thank you for your reply though.
And you are finding it helpful for anxiety?
I've also been tried with gabapentin which is very similar I think.
Again, my thanks for your reply, I hope I haven't burst into someone else's thread.
It has taken the edge off my anxiety, but hasn't dampened it down completely. I've been having a spike in my anxiety since Saturday, but it's definitely not as bad as before I started on Pregabalin. Hopefully the 300mg daily dose will do it for me. I'm going to start a thread about my experiences when I'm on my full dose and talk about side effects etc.
Okay...that would be useful.
Im thinking I might tweak my afternoin dose up a bit because I always seems to get some weird anxiety for no particular reason in the evening.
I get this same thing. Been on pregabalin a week and for some reason my anxiety hits hard in the afternoon/early evening. Then I sleep great (slept to my alarm last night for the 1st time in 4 months) feel almost 100% in morning, then the anxiety hits at about 2PM, then my afternoon dose (I take at 3PM) kicks in at about 4:30, and I am usually pretty normal for the night. Looks like this may have evened out for you, hoping for the same!
Several people have posted that they have a bumpy start at first, but it does even out over time so you can take two doses daily. If possible, for now can you divide your doses into three daily?
I am currently taking 150 three times a day. Like about 7AM, 3PM, and 11PM. The doses just seem to hit, and then fade an hour or two before the next dose, even at 3 a day.
You could try 7AM, 1PM and 7PM. That would mean the level drops overnight, but it might not be noticeable if you are asleep. (I also take mirtazapine right on bedtime, and I quickly fall asleep with minimal waking during the night.) Also, the bumpy start seems to even out after the first few weeks. Good luck.
(Another approach might be to increase your daily dose by one third, and take it four times a day - say 7AM, 12 noon, 5PM and 11PM. Hopefully this would only be temporary and you could reduce the frequency of doses over time).
What is your dose of Pregabalin and Mirtazapine? Do you feel they work well together? Did you take any meds before these? I took sertraline for 8 years and was good, had a few blips, but overall I didn't even think about anxiety. I came off them in October, did great for a few months, but started to get a little anxiety creeping in, in January. Tried to go back on sertraline, but it just made it 100X worse, so did a trial of Lexapro. I am desperate for something to work, thinking my 8 years on Zoloft, and all these med trials has changed my brain so I will never feel normal again. Really frustrating cause just 4 months ago, I was a happy normal Dad of 3 kids who never thought about anxiety and loved life. Now I am barely functional, always in my head, and trying to run a business while dealing with constant crushing anxiety! Sorry for the rant, just feeling really frustrated and kind of hopeless at the moment.
Hi Utah49er - I can understand your frustration, trying to run a business. Anxiety and work don't mix well, especially if you are the one in charge.
I take 600 mg pregabalin and 45 mg mirtazapine daily, which is the usual maximum prescription dose (I'm 6'1" and 195 lb). I find they work well together. I was originally given mirtazapine alone, which fixed my night-time anxiety (waking with anxiety followed by insomnia), but didn't help much during the day. When pregabalin was added, both days and nights were fine.
I've had anxiety for many years, but it would have quiet periods and then flare-ups. One AD that I had that was helpful was doxepin. During very bad times I would have courses of benzodiazepines.
Good luck with it. Try to be patient and give it time, but I know it's not easy.
Thanks for the kind words and sharing your experience Hanshan. Also good to see you have not put on weight with two drugs that have been known to cause that, one of my biggest fears on Pregabalin. I feel I am for sure better on the 450 msg of pregabalin than I was before, but still not close to where I want to be. Can it take time? I have only been on 450 for 3 days, but it seems like it might be one that how you feel right ways is as good as it gets, is that the case in your experience or what you have heard? Doc says I can go to 600 whenever I want, and I am not scared to as the side effects aren't too bad, maybe a little spacey and out of it, but nothing major. I don't really want to do that though if given time the 450 would work and get me back to where I want to be.
Hi Utah49er - Actually, I did put on weight when I started mirtazapine, going up to around 220 lb, but I made a determined effort to lose weight a year or two back. I was always of a slim build, so could probably lose a bit more.
Pregabalin can take a while to fully work, or to find the right dose. There's also the "initial euphoria" effect, where people feel exceptionally good when they first take it, but the feeling fades after a day or two. Even so, the anti-anxiety effect can persist. In your case, it's worth staying on 450 mg per day for some more days to see if your anxiety is manageable at that level. But if not, you can give 600 mg a try. Good luck
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