How did Pregabalin work for you?

[inCOGnito]

There are numerous emerging studies showing that pregabalin is efficacious in the treatment of GAD and it is quite well tolerated.

It would be nice to get the 'patient perspective'.

Have you tried pregabalin / Lyrica??

Did it work for you?

It would be helpful to know what daily dosage you were taking and how long you were on it.

[Mark13]

I was on it for 4 months, starting on 150mg and was on 600 after a month in 2 divided doses.

The drug just completely stopped working for me.

[hanshan]

I'm replying to this poll to bump it back up to the top of the list.

If you have taken pregabalin for more than a settling-in period of a few weeks (or if you had to abandon it due to side effects), it would be helpful to contribute to this poll.

[Tufty]

I took it for 8 months at doses up to 500mg a day, initially it worked brilliantly and significantly reduced my anxiety with minimal side effects but I had to increase the dose every 5 days or so to maintain the anti-anxiety effect. Sadly after 4 months it didn't seem to have any positive effect on my mood or anxiety and I had facial numbness and tingling. I continued taking 400-500mg for another 3 months in the hope it would start working again as it had at the start but it didn't.

I withdrew the drug gradually and stopped it after 8 months without any increase in anxiety, so it seems it was ineffective.

So yes it did work for a short period of time.

[shedrain]

It's worked very, very well for me.

I would say that it's given me my life back at 175mg a day and given me the clarity to start seriously looking at changing my perspectives on life.

I have gained about a stone in the 2.5 months I've been on it. Lots of added weight on the bum, thighs and mid riff.

Now I'm looking at the possibility of slowly starting to withdraw.

[Coppernob]

I've been on pregabalin for about 6/7 months, and it has been a miracle. I'm only on 75mg a day, I know that is a low dose, but it's clear that small doses of most depression/anxiety drugs work better for me than larger doses, possibly because I'm older (71). Pregabalin has given me my life back, within days I had my old zest back and was looking forward and planning things, just like normal, well better really!

I am also on 15mg of mirtazapine at night, I would love to come off it but am wary of not sleeping without it. I'm wondering if I increased the pregabalin to 100mg and took the last 25mg at night it would make me sleep, and perhaps I could ditch the mirtazapine, which I'm sure is responsible for me feeling so groggy first thing in the morning.

[SarahH]

Well if pregabalin makes you sleepy in the day when you take it then it may help you sleep if you take it before you go to bed, but if not I would stick to the small dose of Mirtazapine....the thing is it may be the "combination" which is making you feel so well so if it's working why change it!

Sarah

[Mark13]

I was on pregabalin 600mg and mirtazapine 15mg for 4 months. In fact I've been on the latter for most of the last 6 years.

I find that I can't do without the mirt - nothing else helps me sleep long-term, and at that dosage for me it has few side effects.

I didn't find that pregabalin made me sleepy or drowsy at all, so I certainly needed the mirt.

[Coppernob]

No, pregabalin doesn't make me drowsy either. The fact that I sleep like a log I think is partly responsible for giving me so much energy in the day. I think my sleep has been fitful for years and I never seemed to have much energy, a couple of games of badminton absolutely floored me , but now I can play 4 or 5 in an afternoon or evening and I still feel fine. Perhaps I just have to overcome the dreadful mornings and keep on with the mirt.

[hanshan]

I'm bumping up this poll again, in case there are people who haven't seen it / voted.