Lyrica question again

Joselita · 09-08-2007, 01:42 PM

Hi Andrea,
I just happened to pop by here today, and read your thread here. Something about using Lyrica on children was niggling my brain .... because I could swear on their own commercial (I don’t know if drug companies air their own commercials there like they do here or not?) they say “Do not use for children under 18 years of age.”

So, I went hunting.... and sure enough, this is what I found:

http://www.drugs.com/lyrica.html

If you go down to the 3rd sub-heading on this page (“What should I discuss with my health care provider before taking Lryica?”), and read to the end of the paragraph....you will see that it says “Do not give this medication to a child younger than 18 years old.”

Like I said, I believe that the company that makes and sells Lyrica gives this same warning in their commercials. Have you asked your Pharmacist about this? Or your Doctor? Have you reported Ali’s stronger mood swings to her Doctor? If not, I definitely would ASAP. If you can get him to explain to you why he is prescribing a medication to a 12 year old child, AGAINST the drug manufacturer’s own guide lines, and are satisfied with whatever answer he gives you, and you decide to keep her on this medication...I would surely keep a close eye on her to make sure that these problems don’t get any worse. Do you keep a journal about Ali’s condition, pain levels, different kinds of treatment & medications, etc? If not...you might consider doing so, to log how these new problems develop or rectify themselves.

I know that I had MANY Problems when taking Neurontin (which is also a GABA drug). The some of the side effects that I suffered were:

Cognitive/Reasoning Problems (I felt STUPID all of the time. I didn’t even feel that I was safe to be behind the wheel of a car)
DRASTIC Mood swings (being very angry, depression getting worse, having a VERY short fuse, that kind of thing)
Vision Problems
Slurred Speech
Slowed Reaction Time
Weight Gain

To make matters worse, the medication wasn’t helping with my pain whatsoever. I couldn’t justify the weight of the side effects and the cost of the medication; it just wasn’t worth it. I went through MANY increases in dosage, because every time I would complain about the side effects I was suffering, my Pain Doc at the time would only increase the dosage, and tell me that things would “get straightened out” once we found the right dosage. They did not.....so I weaned myself off of the med. I DO NOT recommend anyone doing that, and I AM NOT advising that anyone take matters into their own hands like I chose to do. These Anti-seizure medications are nothing to fool around with.

Anyway...I really hope that Ali starts feeling better soon. I too remember having 12 year olds (my two kids are only 16 months apart, so I had 12 year olds for 2 years in a row! LOL. They are now 18 and 19..almost 20). While I do agree with Vic that there is a certain amount of Mood Swings going on at that age, it was my experience that they didn’t just pop up over night, or increase in such a drastic way I such a short amount of time. I understand that every child is different.....but I know that I would be very concerned if either one of my children were on a medication (recommended for use in children or not...but ESPECIALLY if it was not) and their mood started swinging so drastically all of a sudden. I would be concerned even if they were not on any medication, and this started happening.

I do hope that things settle down for you both. I have been trying to read your & Ali’s story when you post here, and I know that it sounds like you guys have had one very rough year. I have my fingers crossed that it will start to mellow out sometime soon.

Jose

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