Pregabalin - 3 weeks - stopped working/noise hallucinations please help

[cohlas]

Hi All - hope this is in the right place.

Long story short - insomnia for 7 years, with anxiety as the secondary factor. Tried many things, only things that have ever worked were 1)5htp for the first few weeks 2)valium - taking on a 'every now and then' basis when extreme stress.

Doctor recently gave me pregabalin (alzain) 75mb morning and evening. Felt really good for the first week, could deal with work issues/ etc. was able to get off to sleep, and roll back over when I wake (and not have chain of thoughts).

I then had a big arguement with my gf and a few bad days at work, and as such the good effects vanished. Doc suggested 75mg 3 x times a day (but also said it doesn't matter when they are taken/could be taken all at once).

Now my current/big issue - noisy neighbours moved in both sides of my flat and low level noise was keeping me up for a few days in a row (i obsess and concentrate on the noise). This is intermittant, but last week when it has stopped, I was still 'hearing' noise all night, regardless of what room i.e. there was no noise, but I was hearing this in my head/ears (through 2 x pairs of earplugs). I've not been consistent with the 3 x 75mgs as I'm worried that this is causing the noise (its a difficult one as the neighbours moved in since taking the prega, but I've never 'imagined' noise before.

I've not stopped taking the morning dose for the last few days (it seemed to stop me hearing things sunday night, but then I didn't have the calm feeling) but take 2 or 3 at night.

I now don't have much of a calm feeling in bed, and hear noise ALL night.

Its driving me crazy and I can't cope.

I feel there is always something stopping me from sleeping and I'm on the edge.

---------- Post added at 18:45 ---------- Previous post was at 18:40 ----------

also FYI not on the lyrica brand

---------- Post added at 18:46 ---------- Previous post was at 18:45 ----------

but have seen a warning on BBC today about it ruining lives and going to a C class drug.

interesting as my doc gave it me because of my reluctance to try SSRi's and me reading alot of good reviews about it

[skymaid]

the story I saw was about people ordering prescription drugs online and people dtying due to drug cocktails.

my gp did say it was a "drug of abuse" when she prescribed it and that it had "street value".

you can order all drugs online including class A.

i'm hoping they don't stop prescribing it because people are abusing it. seems to be helping me so far

---------- Post added at 19:25 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------

if the noises are related to a reaction to lyrica then it doesnt have a long half life and you havent been on it long so hopefully it wont last long.

[hanshan]

The only "hit" potential of pregabalin when taken at normal prescription doses is "temporary euphoria" that affects some people when they first take it. It's very mild, and the emphasis is on "temporary" - it never lasts long.

All those scary reports in the news seem to be based on cases of people with a history of multiple drug abuse/misuse. They might have half a dozen drugs in them, then take pregabalin at 3 - 20 times the maximum prescription dose.

People without a history of drug misuse who take pregabalin as prescribed for a known medical condition stand a good chance of deriving benefit at very low risk.

[SmilingAlbert]

Agree with Hanshan.

Many prescription drugs I'm sure have weird affects when taken at very large doses. It is unfortunate that Preg is being abused and that prescription supplies may be getting onto the black market.

Not sure making it a schedule C (like benzos) is a good idea; it may may make doctors more reluctant to prescribe it as they may think "oh yes Pregabalin is a bit like valium and I shouldn't prescribe it."

As discussed here ad nauseam, there is enough medical ignorance about Preg as it is; putting it in the same box as somewhat discredited items like benzos is unhelpful.

Regarding original issues, sounds like it may be odd start-up side effects; hopefully they will settle down soon.

Albert

[cohlas]

thanks guys.

I'm probably at my lowest ebb. Again all through last night i heard the sound of a tv - despite it not actually being there. Its worse when I have earplugs in. Looks like it might be costing me my relationship too.

I only had 1 x 75mg yesterday in the middle of the day, I was tired enough to sleep - so I may try and ween myself off to see if this 'noise goes'. I really don't know if its linked, at the moment I just need the noise to stop and then I will sleep - this has replaced my anxiety about work, random things etc. - but even if it does stop soon, I'll be abck to where I started with short temper, anger, anxiety about everything, tense feelings, on edge.. waking up and making notes etc

:(

[hanshan]

Hi Cohlas,

If the sound is like a tv, it's probably an intrusive thought of some kind (but see below). People get tinnitus, but that's usually a steady ringing, whistling or buzzing sound.

Note that the human body does generate some sounds that most people are unaware of most of the time. Trying to find absolute silence actually makes these sounds more apparent, not less. Anxiety can heighten that.

Rather than try to find silence, I'd try and find some sound that you find relaxing, and listen to that either through speakers or ear buds/phones. You can find natural sound tracks on the internet, or there may be music that you like.

I can't say for sure whether or not pregabalin is causing the sounds, but I suspect it may be anxiety. Good luck.

[MyNameIsTerry]

the story I saw was about people ordering prescription drugs online and people dtying due to drug cocktails.

my gp did say it was a "drug of abuse" when she prescribed it and that it had "street value".

you can order all drugs online including class A.

i'm hoping they don't stop prescribing it because people are abusing it. seems to be helping me so far

---------- Post added at 19:25 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------

if the noises are related to a reaction to lyrica then it doesnt have a long half life and you havent been on it long so hopefully it wont last long.

People have been abusing Benzo's for decades. It became such a social problem, and organised crime issue, that the UN included them in their Convention on Psychotropic Substances policy. Pregabalin is not acknowledged as far as I know.

Every now & again one of these scaremonger media stories turns up about Preg. They are a load of rubbish and based on substance misusers mega dosing the stuff. How is that even a story when they have been happily shooting up with morphine, ketamine and lets not forget the highly illegal drugs?!

Can you really order Class A's online? :ohmy: Other than drug dealers, I take it these are the pharmacies abroad? The UN covers Class A and they would kick any countries signed onto the Convention about this as there is supposed to be local laws to back up the Convention.

---------- Post added at 05:40 ---------- Previous post was at 05:17 ----------

Here is the story, I'm sure hanshan & Albert will find it amusing as you will spot the usual spin:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37574709

First off, it's about Northern Ireland (NI). It's all about substance misusers and an attempt to worry prescribed users over a drug that they are perfectly SAFE on.

So called "Drug Workers" should consider the impact of their statements on those normal users. It's irresponsible to attempt to scare people to achieve your goals about a minority who misuse anything they can get their hands on from the local drug dealer!

This is just stupid to me:

An ex-drug user, who lost his teenage friend to suicide after a battle with drugs, has told BBC News NI that abuse of Lyrica is "wrecking lives".

Yeah, so does heroine. And unlike heroine, using Preg properly does NOT "wreck lives". Really who cares about an ignorant opinion? I used to know a guy at college many years ago who would down about 10 paracetamol and 6 cans of extra strong lager to get a buzz off it. Should we scare the crap out of people about this OTC?

AND this drug counsellor:

Being someone who takes it, I know the dangers with it. I once overdosed by accident. I was out of my head.

Rubbish mate. Simply rubbish. It's your fault if you downed half a bottle of the stuff, for reasons he doesn't explain (:winks:), and didn't follow the instructions. The NHS can't do much more about your stupidity than what they do now with EVERY medication, many of which can be harmful in large doses above their maximums.

AND

"It's a strange drug. It might make you take your clothes off because you are too warm, it makes you feel like you have super strength. You feel no pain."

That's funny, it's used by millions of people with no problems at all. I'm guessing he was called to someone who had abused it to get high. Opiates prescribed by GP's will do things like this to you.

AND

Alex Bunting. from Addiction NI, said the drug was finding its way onto the streets after being prescribed.

So, that's a criminal matter. GP's can't be held responsible for patients who intend to break laws. A patient at some point in time might have whacked another person over the head with their NHS crutches, should we ban crutches? :doh: It only matters that GP's are correctly checking before prescribing, if not that is a matter for the NHS to investigate and take relevant action against.

Given the high prescribing rate in NI, something is likely wrong with their local prescribing rules. I really can't understand how GP's would be overzealous in prescribing an expensive medication when they are normally mindful of the costs to their practices. And NI is the poorest of the countries making up the union so it really makes little sense to me.

This caught my eye too:

Pregabalin can be ordered online. It is understood it has been coming into Northern Ireland in fairly constant levels for a number of years, along with other prescription drugs including diazepam and temazepam.
Packages of the drug ordered by customers in Northern Ireland are intercepted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the UK Border Agency at airports in England every week.

Not really. It can be ordered from other countries as can other meds. It's clearly defined in law as being illegal to do this and carries the charge "trafficking" with a sizeable tariff. But there is a possible loophole. I've been through all 3 relevant Acts to understand how some of these pharmacies are selling Diazepam to people in the UK. Some have said they actually speak to a doctor in that country who authorises the prescription to the pharmacy. This is a grey area as in The Medicines Act for the UK it allows for those legally allowed to prescribe to send medicines abroad. So, in a foreign country it might be the same so that their doctors are not breaking any laws, neither are the pharmacies, but because it's coming through Customs in the UK it will get confiscated.

What I don't know is whether something exists in practice guidelines, outside of the law, that instructs doctors not to prescribe for those who aren't their patients. But then, this would differ per country.

It's easy to Google a pharmacy that will sell you anything they stock. But what you may not spot is that these pharmacies are outside the UK. Those in the UK won't send any meds unless you send them the prescription, which is how private prescriptions work but this can also be used for NHS ones too and you can even use it to undercut the prescription charge, if you pay one, with some of the cheaper meds (Cit, Sert, etc).

All upgrading to Cat C does is allow the police to arrest you. Cat D's are not something the police care about with certain exceptions like anabolic steroids which some forces are trying to press cases in court for. Otherwise you would get arrested for carrying your Citalopram around!

Our doctors can prescribe Cat C, most meds fall under Cat D (Schedule 4). If my memory is correct, they absolutely can't prescribe those on Schedule 1 without a government special licence (often these are for research) and I think Schedule 2 is off limits too but would have to check on that.

---------- Post added at 06:00 ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 ----------

That counsellor that overdosed is on far higher than the prescribed amounts for GAD:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37694647

I'm on 1,200mg of Lyrica. It's been prescribed by a consultant as it's more than a GP can prescribe.

He should know that opiates used for chronic pain have all sorts of weird & wonderful side effects. There was a guy in my city arrested for having sex with his motorcycle in the nude. He had no recollection and the psychiatrist agreed it was the med. So, these things do happen with certain dose ranges.

Overdosing by your own hand though is a matter if personal responsibility.

I still think it is irresponsible and ignorant to pedal media scare stories like this. He perhaps gets the euphoria because he is a high user (like with opiate users?) but he should realise he is impacting potentially on lower dosage users like anxiety sufferers and epileptics who the drug is actually licenced for.

I also find it interesting that the GP is mentioned at all. Pregabalin is licenced for neuropathic pain but what this guy is saying doesn't seem like that? Has the GP "off labelled"? If so, that's concerning given the prescribing rates in NI.

Does anyone else find these kind of reports highly suspicious in that they never mention what dosages these misusers are on? The reports always give the impression popping any of these can end up with these results which is far from the case as hanshan says.

[hanshan]

Thanks Terry, for that.

I read Geoff Savage's account (the ex-drug addict turned drug counsellor). I have to say, I'm still picking up a lot of junkie-talk from him.

He's already taking twice the maximum daily dose for normal people, and then he says he "accidentally" took an overdose? How much was that, then? How do you accidentally do that? And how can he comment about people who are taking one tenth of what he takes every day?

He mentions effects of pregabalin that sound much more like recreational overdose effects than therapeutic dosing effects. Is this what he does?

There is no mention of anything else he's taking. There are hyperbolic descriptions of pregabalin drug effects, but based on only his say-so. There is also a stern warning about the dangers of prescription drugs (except for exceptional cases, such as his), but little indication of actual patterns of drug use in his community.

Overall, a lot of hogwash, I have to say.

[SmilingAlbert]

+1 Terry, Hanshan.

It would be great if people took responsibility for their lives, instead of blaming absolutely everyone and every thing else for their problems.

NHS medicines are there to help people, not allow people to use tax-payers' money to get high.

Police presumably re-capture some of the Preg in the course of their work; it should be easy (from sticky pharmacy labels etc.) to trace where they came from, and cancel the prescriptions and make it clear to the miscreants that 1. they wont be getting any more 2. they are endangering lives

Albert

[skymaid]

yeah a very misleading story.

you can get pretty much anything from the "dark web" prescription or otherwise so I don't see what relevance that has to pregabalin.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Albert & hanshan,

Did you notice the chart in this article?



http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=2839&d=1477900588



Considering the threads on here about how hard it is to get Preg in Scotland, I was surprised to see in 2015 it was being prescribed at a similar rate to that in England.

Also, going back to the original issue with NI, I think if the local NHS want to do something, they should be conducting analysis of why NI dish out far more of this drug than the rest of the UK. From a cost point of view alone, that should be a priority to senior managers. :doh:

[hanshan]

Hi Terry,

It would help to know what conditions pregabalin is being prescribed for, as I believe it is approved in the UK for three quite different conditions: (1) neuropathic nerve pain, like shingles, (2) epileptic seizures, (3) generalised anxiety.

Then there are off-label prescriptions. I'd be really worried if an unknown patient comes in complaining of "pain" and asking for an opiate prescription is sent away with a prescription for pregabalin, just to get rid of them.

[SmilingAlbert]

Interesting data. And yes, complicated by the fact that the drug can be used for 3 conditions. The NI data seems a wild outlier and should be looked at.

Terry, as you say the Scotland data is surprising, given the grief we hear from Scots folk here about getting it prescribed.