Fibromyalgia medication - Lyrica. Is it really effective?
My mother has Fibromyalgia. She takes 80mg of Methathadone per day for her chronic pain(her Fibromyalgia is a SEVERE case), she also takes Lyrica (a low dose, as her doctor told her) and she has been taking Lyrica for about 6 months now. When I ask her if it helps with the pain, all she says it makes her feel as if she's high, but it also makes her nerves tingle(implying that it must do something to the nerves that cause the pain) but she is still unable to tell if the Lyrica is actually helping ease her pain.
DOES the medication Lyrica really work? and for those that use it, I would like to know how many mg you take daily.
Public Comments
1. look up alternative remedies and shamanic healing they say all health issues attribute to emtotional problem when brain can't process trauma passes it on to other organs so good to try therapy and eft eat fresh fruits and veggies spend time in nature.. relax on mystic boards.com go to health section under everything you need to know lists metapysical causes of health problems2. lyrica is not a drug that should cause a high
some people say it works
some say teh side effects don't outweigh the benfits
some say it doesnt work at all
problem is that FMS is highly overdiagnosed by incompetant docs who use it as a general label for pain..so we don't know if the people claioming it worked really had fms..
that is what lyrica is--a med that works on nerves
3. I don't remember what dosage I took but I know my doc put me on it and I couldn't tolerate.
the 'high feeling' your mother described is probably similar to the zombie feeling I had when taking it.
Its taken at night before going to sleep and i couldn't ever shake the feeling from it. It didn't help me at all and it made me not able to function on a daily basis.
Good luck to her tho.
4. Go to drugs.com and read about it, that is a good web site for drug information.
There are also many studies showing that SAM-e can reduce the pain from fibromyalgia. SAM-e has no side effects and is a natural remedy.
5. I've heard that a lot of people find it really effective, but just as many hate it. I used to take 75mg every 12 hours and all it did was make me sleep.
6. I know how your mother feels. I've been on Lyrica for 3-1/2 years now. I started at a lower dose of 50 mg a day (due to the side effects). I've slowly worked my way up. I'm now on 300 mg a day. It does, indeed, make you very, very high.
At one point, I had decided that it didn't really do anything for the pain (other than maybe take a little of the edge off), and I was so tired of being "high" all the time...I just wanted to feel normal, I wanted to watch a movie and remember watching it, I wanted to be able to write a check on the first try, etc. So, I took myself off the Lyrica. Everything went well for maybe four or five days and I thought, "See there, didn't really need it after all!" Well, it was the biggest mistake of my life. All I know is that I must have been okay those few days because the Lyrica was built up in my system because very suddenly I was thrown into a living h__l -- I mean I was in the most excruciating pain imaginable. Obviously, I promptly went back on my Lyrica and have not missed a dose since.
I find it sad that I have to be on this drug; however, I have yet to find anything else that helps as well. I also take one to two Darvocet-N 100 per day along with the Lyrica. I refuse to take anything stronger than the Darvocet for fear of addiction.
Oh, and I also have a little tingling, as well. Come to think of it, that has gotten to be less of a problem the longer I have taken this. Tell your mom that the Lyrica is worth it if she can handle the side effect of being high. Thankfully, I don't have to work.
I wish your mom good luck with this fibro monster :)
