If you were recently prescribed lyrica you are probably wondering if it is safe for you to take.
You probably have a ton of questions because you didn t get a great explanation from your doctor
on what to expect with this medicine. Today, we are going to go over the most common questions
that patients ask me about Lyrica and hopefully help you make a better decision with your doctor
on whether it s right for you. So, let s get to answering those questions.
The most common reasons why Lyrica ,also known by the generic name of Pregabalin, is used,
is to treat conditions where the nerves have been damaged and are causing pain. These are
conditions like diabetic neuropathy, shingles and spinal cord injuries. Other very common
conditions we use it in are Anxiety, Fibromyalgia, Restless leg syndrome and some seizures disorders.
The medication works by trying to calm down the sensitivity of nerves so there are a lot of other
conditions related to pain that your doctor may be giving it to you hoping that it might help.
Hopefully if it s going to work for you, you will notice that your pain is starting to lesson.
This typically doesn t happen right away though. It s one of the kinds of medication that usually
takes several days to start working. It may even be a few weeks before you can see the
full effect for the condition that you are trying to treat. The most common thing that
people may feel is a little drowsiness or feeling slightly cloudy in the head.
Although some actually can get a sensation of euphoria or a high
from taking this medication. But we ll talk a little more about that later.
The most common side effects that you would likely experience are some dizziness or drowsiness.
Beyond that we can see some blurred vision, increase in appetite and weight gain,
sometimes some vivid dreams, changes in libido, dry mouth,
swelling in your ankles, constipation and cloudy thinking. Most of these, especially the dizziness
and drowsiness tend to get better over time or can be minimized just by starting with a low dose
and increasing it slowly if needed. There could be other things that you may notice but these are the
most common. And remember, as with any medication, when it comes to these types of side effects,
you need to balance how much it is helping ,with any side effect that you may have.
If you aren t getting much relief and the side effects are worse then don t take it.
Now there are some effects that can happen with this medication that are more serious
and you need to watch out for. These aren t common so wouldn t necessarily be something
that should keep you from taking it if its needed, but you need to be aware to know what
to look for. The most concerning things to watch for would be allergic reations.
There is a specific type of reaction like this that we call angioedema. This most often shows
up as swelling in the the face and lips but can progress to your throat as well as other parts
of your body. This can be very serious and even life threatening. You can see severe skin rashes,
a drop in your platelet count and difficulty breathing. Also something that you need to watch
out for is that it is possible to see worsening depression or even suicidal thoughts. If you think
you are experiencing any of these side effects, it s important to seek care right away.
The short answer is yes. This is a controlled substance in the United
States because it does have potential for abuse. In some it can cause a high and many
may use it in conjunction with opiates to increase their high. Unfortunately,
it is commonly given with opioids which can actually increase your risk of addiction as
well as even increase your risk of overdose when you take them together. If you are taking them
together you really need to be careful and really talk it through with your doctor on its risks.
And those who already have a history of addiction should really think twice about taking it.
There are quite a few medication interactions with Lyrica that you need to be aware of.
I can t go into every one of them as this video would go on forever but there are ones that are
more common that you should be aware of. For those of you with high blood pressure, and are
taking medications called Ace Inhibitors--these are medicines like lisinopril or ramapril--
you need to be careful because it can increase your risk of getting angioedema.
That s the condition I just talked about. If you have diabetes and are taking pioglitazone or
rosiglitazone, you need to be careful because it can cause a lot of fluid retention and swelling.
You should also be careful with medicines that can cause sedation such as pain medicines,
sleeping pills and muscle relaxants as they can cause more sedation as well as make it harder
for you to breathe. As I said before, there are a lot of medicines that can have interactions so, if
you are taking multiple medications make sure you review them with your doctor and pharmacist.
Now this is a question that has a lot of answers and it really depends on what condition you
are being treated for. It comes in a capsule that starts at 25mg going all the way up to 300mg.
Most conditions have a recommended starting dose from 50-150mg 2-3 times a day.
The max recommended dose for any condition would be 600mg a day.
So this is a question that I can t really answer for you. You really need to talk with your doctor
about it. It is a medication though, that you don t want to stop all of a sudden.
Doing so can potentially cause two issues. One is that since it is a seizure medication,
in some people stopping it all of a sudden can cause seizures.
The other and more common would be sudden stopping can cause withdrawl symptoms.
If you are going to stop it, it is better to slowly take less and less over 1-2 weeks and
you should be fine. But please, make sure you work with your doctor in your decision to stop it.
This is also going to have to be an individual decision made between you and your doctor.
We do see great success with treating conditions like fibromyalgia,
diabetic nerve pain, shingles pain and even anxiety. It can be a great option to treat
these conditions. Where the benefit becomes less clear, is for your chronic low back pain.
Overall, the evidence hasn t shown that in the majority of people, that it works very well.
With any medicine when you are trying to decide if you should take it, you need to weight the
risks and the potential benefits. For those first conditions, the potential benefits typically will
outweigh the risks. For less proven conditions like back pain you may want to make sure you have
exhausted other options before starting it. Well, that s what we have to share about Lyrica
today. It can be a great medication for certain conditions, but it is not for
everybody. Hopefully what we have gone through today has helped answer your biggest questions
about this medication and help you be more aware of what you should be watching for. I find that
the more you take charge and know about your own health the better your health can be. That s why
we create these videos, so you can take a bigger role in your healthcare decisions. We want to
thank you for spending your time with us here at FamilyMed and hope to see you in the next video.