Lyrica side effects
 

Has anyone had a reduction in side effects with Lyrica over time?

I had a reduction in the nerve burning but the weight gain and damage to insulin was not worth the pain relief

I was on Lyrica before my first resection, it helped a bit but did cause weight gain (at least 10 lbs) which to me isn't worth carrying the extra weight! I haven't gone on it for my second side either.

Lyrica Side effects
 

Lyrica helped me with sleep. It did not help me with burning nerve pain. I felt dizzy, stupid, and sleepy all the timeand gained 2 lbs a week.
Gabapentine helped with the burning nerve pain almost instantly but the side effects such as swelling in the ankles, brain fog, forgetfulness, swelling in my face, rash and abdominal cramps .... It just wasn't worth it. The specialist has reccomended nabilone which if covered I will try, but that's a whole other can of worms, waiting to be opened. :winky:

I had no weight gain, fortunately. I understand the weight gain happens because the Lyrica makes you hungry, but it did't for me. The side effect I couldn't tolerate was blurred vision, which got worse over time, not better. It was a GREAT sleep aid, tho!

Sue

Thanks for all your responses. I've only been taking 50 mg once a day and he had originally said he would up it to twice a day yesterday. I really didn't take it long enough to notice any weight gain and I really didn't think it was helping any at all. The first day I took it I thought it helped a lot but after that I couldn't tell I was taking it except for the side effects. It just made me plain stupid and I had the attention span of a 5 year old with ADHD! (I don't mean that in a bad way....I have a daughter with ADHD so that's meant to be speaking from my experiences with her). I've also left stuff cooking on the stove and forgot about it....thank God my son and boyfriend noticed it each time or I may have burned the place down! The doctor asked me if I wanted to increase the dosage and said the side effects may go away in time and I told him that I didn't feel comfortable with it at this time. I'm debating about whether or not to even continue taking it since I was getting no pain relief at all.

Lyrica works well for me. I've been told now by a few doctors that in general the dose needs to be much higher than the one you were taking for it to work well. I was recently told that it works much better at 600mg a day than at 300. I had cognitive problems with too much Neurontin but I haven't reached that large a dose of Lyrica yet and I haven't experienced any brain fog. It does help significantly with my nerve pain. I do have the cravings and want to lose weight but I also want to have less nerve pain.

WOW Fern!! I had no idea that the doses could be prescribed so high!!

KLS, I started out with 50mg, went to 100mg, then 125mg. That was too much for me :/ I take 100mg at night around 8pm and it guarantees me that I will be stupid until 11am the following day. That is my personal side effect complaint. It seems that when i am having tough days, I can take 50mg during the day and be not so super foggy, and then at night I take only one other 50mg. But ALWAYS, I need to calculate 8 solid hours of sleep into the equation after any Lyrica dosage.
Good luck, I hope this medication really works for you!!

I hope that the Lyrica works for you! I know alot of people on here have tried it at one time or another. A quick word of warning though is that several people have had issues with weight gain and a dramatic increase in blood sugar levels. Lyrica worked for me (for about 2 weeks) before I had an allergic reaction to it.

I quit taking it as of last Thursday. It wasn't helping with the pain at all after the first day & I really didn't feel comfortable with increasing the dosage as it made me so stupid. Also, I have a family history of diabetes and the side effect of increase in blood sugar levels concerns me, especially since that's not something the doctor is monitoring. It also made me extremely irritable, EVERYTHING makes me angry since I've started taking it. Since I've quit taking it, all that is gradually going away. I wanted to try Neurontin but he wouldn't give me a prescription for that.