I have epilepsy and have been taking Neurontin for about 11-12years. I had been experiecing a lot of back pain and so the doctor raised my Neurontin from 1500mg to 2500mg. Now I have been experincing a lot of sharp shooting pains radiating from my neck down to my right should and down my arm for about 2 months. I had been getting morphine to add in when my back pain was really bad. Now as of friday the doctor wants me to start Lyrica to reduce the pain and replace my Neurontin for my seizures too.

I am really concerned that this Lyrica may not be strong enough to prevent my seizures AND my nerve and back pain. He said I could slowly stop the Neurontin over the next month.

I did some reading on Lyrica and iust says it can be used as a secondary med for seizures when taking another primary seizure med...There is no mention of it being prescribed as a primary seizure med.

Has anyone here been given Lyrica as a primary seizure med ? if so how well has it worked to prevent your seizures ? SHould i be concerned about doing this switch ?

Hi Bluewillowsky,

Welcome to the forum! I took neurontin yrs. ago and it didn't help me at all as a matter of fact it caused me to have severe status absence seizures which I never had in my life. I then went on lyrica and it helped me much more and my absence sz. along with my complex partial sz. went way down.
I will tell you that you have to go off the neurontin very slowly as well as go on the lyrica slowly. If you haven't tried it yet start taking vitamin B12 once a day 1000 mcg. for adults and 500 mcg. for kids and teens this drug calms the nerves down stopping pain and reducing seizures. It's worked great for me. Here's wishing You well and May God Bless You!


Sue

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come, let us know if we can be of any help. Feel free to jump in any where. There are great number of fellow members here to assist as possible.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene