I've had experience with both drugs. I was on Lyrica after amitriptyline stopped working for me, and the dose was titrated up pretty quickly to max dose. It worked well for me, but after about 6 months I had a couple of episodes of all-over body electric shock things which were horrible! My doc thought it best to take me off the Lyrica, and put me on Gabapentin (Neurontin).

Gabapentin didn't do much for the pain. Over the next six months my CRPS continued to spread, the pain was getting worse, and I was taking 1200mg, 900 and 1200mg ever day. I had a couple of bouts of severe sickness, diarrhoea and GI pain, which were attributed each time to a stomach bug (none of my family got them though). After the second time, I did a lot of reading up. During the sickness I couldn't keep my tabs down for three days, and I didn't notice any worsening of my pain levels, so I decided to come off the Gaba myself, over about a week. Nothing happened, apart from my stomach symptoms going and me feeling a lot brighter. My pain levels had been worsening anyway, and that continued, but wasn't faster. I was off all meds for about three weeks, but couldn't deal with some intense new stabbing pains that just made me sob with fear.

I couldn't bear to go back on the Neurontin, and having had the electric shock things a couple more times I was sure they were the CRPS and not the Lyrica, so I thought I'd give it another go. I take just 50 mg morning and night, and it has helped with the worst of the pain, so instead of increasing the dose I have kept it at that and I just take more if the pain is bad. I've only had to twice since being back on low dose Lyrica. I'm more awake, my stomach is fine, and my pain feels more under control so I've been more active.

I told my pain doc what I'd done the next time I saw her, and she approved and said the Gaba could well have caused my stomach problems as it 'can be nasty stuff'. Hmm. I read a lot about the two drugs, and basically Lyrica is a particular part of Neurontin isolated and concentrated to do a specific job. Which is why you take so much more Neurontin as a dosage - there's all sorts of other stuff in it as well as the Lyrica part. Keeping it low dose means I haven't noticed the weight gain part this time.

So basically, I would take Lyrica over Neurontin ever day of the week and twice on Sundays. It's the only drug I've found that definitely does SOMETHING for some of the particular CRPS type pains. I still have pain, but it is manageable most of the time, and I count myself lucky at the moment.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Bram