Lasting dizziness after a month?
I tried Lyrica (name brand) a few years ago and it did help some with my anxiety and really helped with some nerve pain that I have from a bulging disc in my neck and lower back. I decided to come off of it due to the elevated triglycerides (over 600) and the price really jumped up after my insurance stopped covering it (around $667/month).
Now about a month and half ago, my doctor recommended it again due to a generic was out and was alot cheaper and was going to used a fairly low dose (150mg/day) and see if that would help not raise my triglycerides that high. I was up to 300mg a day in the past.
The problem I am having is, with the name brand lyrica at this dose the dizzy/drunk feeling went away after a week. The generic for some reason is causing it to persist and is very intense and setting of my anxiety due to how I feel all the time. I am thinking of trying to lower my dose to 75mg a day and see how that goes.
Has anyone else had the long lasting side effect of this with the generic? Also, since I have been on this for only around 6 weeks, do I need to follow the 10% taper per week, or would I be ok with a quicker taper?
Thank you in advance.
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
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Originally Posted by
Jakemje
Has anyone else had the long lasting side effect of this with the generic?.
Who makes the generic you're taking?
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the price really jumped up after my insurance stopped covering it (around $667/month)
Yikes!! :scared15:
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Also, since I have been on this for only around 6 weeks, do I need to follow the 10% taper per week, or would I be ok with a quicker taper?
You are unlikely to have developed a dependency, however, you still shouldn't just quit taking it as there is a small to moderate risk of seizures with a sudden stoppage. I urge you to discuss coming off this med with your doctor before quitting. Seek advise on how to taper off if this is what is decided.
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
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Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
Who makes the generic you're taking?
The company is Novadoz. For some reason, this is the only company to make it in my area of the U.S. and is the only one I can get from any pharmacy in my state. The pharmacist literally told me that if I have any problems with this medication, there is nothing they can do. That was before I filled the first prescription, which I found very odd since I didn't ask anything about it.
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Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
You are unlikely to have developed a dependency, however, you still shouldn't just quit taking it as there is a small to moderate risk of seizures with a sudden stoppage. I urge you to discuss coming off this med with your doctor before quitting. Seek advise on how to taper off if this is what is decided.
I have talked to them and they are very lackadaisical with my treatment. They have left it up to me about the taper. These are also the doctors that had me come off of 20mgs of valium that I had taken for over 6 years in just 4 weeks. They have become so scared of these types of medications since the "opiate epidemic" that very little input as to how to safely come off is being given. They just want you off as soon as possible so that the prescription is not in their name. I was only given two options for my anxiety after the list of medications that I had tried, one being Lyrica and the other being Seroquel. I gave the Seroquel a go with no success and then to the Pregabalin again. They are using these medications as a "loophole" to benzos. Especially the Seroquel. I heard 4 different patients being prescribed this the same day in the waiting room of my Pdoc. (The psychiatrist I see is in a practice with multiple doctors, but have the same waiting room and front desk nurse)
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jakemje
The company is Novadoz. For some reason, this is the only company to make it in my area of the U.S. and is the only one I can get from any pharmacy in my state. The pharmacist literally told me that if I have any problems with this medication, there is nothing they can do. That was before I filled the first prescription, which I found very odd since I didn't ask anything about it.
Hmmm. Wonder what the pharmacist knows. Novadoz is the U.S. arm a a major Indian pharmaceutical company which supplies ingredients to many U.S. generics manufactures as well as marketing their own range of generics including pregabalin. There doesn't seem to be anything unusual in the contents of their pills, but people can react differently to minor variations, including to the non active components such as fillers and colouring agents.
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They are using these medications as a "loophole" to benzos. Especially the Seroquel. I heard 4 different patients being prescribed this the same day in the waiting room of my Pdoc. (The psychiatrist I see is in a practice with multiple doctors, but have the same waiting room and front desk nurse)
Pregabalin has a similar effect on neurons as the benzodiazepines (BZDs), but by a different route. BZDs slow cell 'firing' by increasing the flow of negatively charged chlorine ions into the cells which makes it harder for them to raise their internal voltage to the firing potential. Pregabalin (also the similar gabapentin) attack this from the opposite direction by slowing the influx of positive charged calcium ions.
Quetiapine (Seroquel) is not related to either the BZDs, or pregabalin. It is an antipsychotic and mood stabilizer. It can be useful in calming anxiety mostly by sedation, but isn't a first line treatment for these disorders or depression.
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I have talked to them and they are very lackadaisical with my treatment. They have left it up to me about the taper.
That isn't good enough. They have a duty of care on this. They prescribed the meds, they have to tell you how to get off them. :curse: Can you change psychiatrists, or they the only ones in your area that accept your medical insurance? Also, what does your doctor say about all this?
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
Quetiapine (Seroquel) is not related to either the BZDs, or pregabalin. It is an antipsychotic and mood stabilizer. It can be useful in calming anxiety mostly by sedation, but isn't a first line treatment for these disorders or depression.
From what three different psychiatrists have told me, they are using Seroquel alot due to it is a fairly fast acting medication to help "dope you up" and calm anxiety fast. They are even prescribing it as a PRN medication. This makes no sense to me.
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Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
That isn't good enough. They have a duty of care on this. They prescribed the meds, they have to tell you how to get off them. :curse: Can you change psychiatrists, or they the only ones in your area that accept your medical insurance? Also, what does your doctor say about all this?
When my psychiatrist of many years retired, I was referred to a new one. They wanted me off the valium in a month. I told them that was not something I could do and felt it was unsafe. I called two more doctors and had my first visits with them and they wanted to exact same. It came down to they did not want to have to write a prescription at all for the valium and wanted me to use only what I had left from my retiring doctor.
I called my old doctor back before he closed his office (I was given about a month and a half between him telling me he was retiring to him closing the door) and told them this and they agreed that it was not the correct thing to do but since I was seeing a new doctor, by law, they could no longer treat me. (Apparently some medical loop hole for retiring doctors to not have to continue care for their patients) Also found out from my old doctor that they reason the were doing the whole "not writing out a new prescription" was due to if they wrote out even a single one to me, the new doctors would be responsible for me on that medication and would have to continue prescribing it till I could come off of it. They were not willing to do this. They did not want it on their record that they had ever prescribed a benzo. I had called over 18 psychiatrists within a 200-mile radius and the three mentioned above were the only ones even willing to see me with me being on valium, even though they would make me come off of it basically before they would treat me. I did a gradual taper over 4 weeks, although very fast, and did come off the medication. No seizures, thank God, but it was very painful.
The whole "opioid epidemic" has turned the medical practice in the states on it's head with anything that they consider to be close to a opioid, even pregabalin. It is being considered "the new valium". https://www.theguardian.com/society/...-c-drug-deaths
Please understand, I have never had a problem with substance abuse and my medical file the doctors were seeing showed this. But it doesn't matter in their eyes. Hell, the new doctor that I am seeing currently suggests for all his patients to see one of their counselors and the one that I saw told me that she had seizures when she had to come off her medications due to the speed at which the doctors made her do it. I couldn't believe it...
But also, I live in the southeastern U.S. and we are considered to be one of the most high risk areas of drug overdose and have had many doctors arrested or lose their license due to over prescribing. But it comes down to what I told the doctor, "I am being punished and put through unsafe practices due to what someone else has done. I am not drinking and taking pain pills with benzos. Semantics aside, I am a drug addict. My body is addicted to certain medications, but I am not a drug abuser and never have taking any medication that a doctor as not told me to take."
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jakemje
they are using Seroquel alot due to it is a fairly fast acting medication to help "dope you up" and calm anxiety fast. They are even prescribing it as a PRN medication. This makes no sense to me.
Or me because it does little to improve the situation, just covers it under a bandaid. :weep:
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They wanted me off the valium in a month.
The irony being no human in history right back to the first Homo sapiens ~300,000 years ago has been diazepam free because it, its metabolites and other BZDs occur naturally in all foods and we would die if eating a BZD diet was possible. There are good reasons why BZDs shouldn't be used long term, but forcing people into quitting them essentially 'cold-turkey' is barbaric. Isn't there something in the Hippocratic Oath about "doing no harm"!! :curse:
Re: Lasting dizziness after a month?
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Originally Posted by
panic_down_under
Isn't there something in the Hippocratic Oath about "doing no harm"!! :curse:
Yep..but now for the all mighty dollar, they have just become hypocrites
