Has anyone been prescribed Pregabalin, Lyrica?

[tarmackev]

I have back pain and I’ve been prescribed this. Wondered if anyone on here has any experience?
One side effect is weight gain which is really making me question whether I should take it or not.
Trying to weigh up the pros and cons.


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[sychen]

I have back pain and I’ve been prescribed this. Wondered if anyone on here has any experience?
One side effect is weight gain which is really making me question whether I should take it or not.
Trying to weigh up the pros and cons.


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Anti seizure drug for back pain? Have you had a second opinion? What was the reason given by the doctor for this drug?

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[tarmackev]

It’s also prescribed for nerve pain and as anti anxiety med.
Lots of people use it for nerve and back pain, that’s what I’ve been prescribed for.


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[Unniti]

I'd start looking to fix back problems by going to the gym. Pills would be the absolute last resort.

[Ypuh]

I'd start looking to fix back problems by going to the gym. Pills would be the absolute last resort.

+1

Prescribing pills is more of a last resort here in The Netherlands. Not something a fit cyclist is supposed to take for one of the most common injuries.

As a healthy young person who grew up in The Netherlands, I'm a little bit biased/afraid of the prescription culture in the US. Call me ignorant or unknowning (there certainly are countless cases where I can imagine pills offer help), but our health care is top notch without prescribing a pill for each pain or trouble .

[niklasp]

Extremely addictive. Is this the American way of treating people!? :0

[jfranci3]

I'd start looking to fix back problems by going to the gym. Pills would be the absolute last resort.

Based on this Rx it looks like this is a nervous system firing issue for spasims. This could be a 'pinched' nerve, chemical imbalance, depression, overuse injury, or a thousand other things. I don't see hittig the gym as a solution in most cases, as likely an over-use injury.

This Rx would probably be inneffective for non-specific back pain.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028270/

Step 1 is taking 2weeks off. Step X is easing back into whatever you were doing.

[ms6073]

Extremely addictive. Is this the American way of treating people!? :0

Typically, no, but I bet it is becomming more and more common with the prevalence of telemedicine during the pandemic. Not a medical professional but given how our health care system has evolved over the last two decades, I suspect US physicians/physicians assistances/nurse practitioners tend to triage and prescribe meds, rather than take the time required to investigate the symptoms to find the underlying/root cause(s).

[AJS914]

Other than prescribing rest and a muscle relaxant, primary care doctors in the US usually don't know much about fixing backs. Usually they send you to physical therapy. Physical therapy gives you some exercises and if you don't repond you end up at a pain management doctor or recommended to a surgeon. Occasionally, you find a physical therapist or an osteopath that is a guru.

Tarmackev, do you have a diagnosis?

I fixed all of my back issues by doing tons of research and self diagnosing myself with a muscle imbalance. First, most people that work at desks and sit all day probably have some level of muscle imbalance. Google "lower crossed syndrome". From sitting all day at a computer you get shorted hip flexors, weak abs, and deactivated glutes. Exaserbating this, a cyclist can have over developed quads. I completely cured myself of sciatica with hip flexor stretching, core work, and glute work.

[glepore]

I took lyrica and gabapentin for a long time for neuropathic pain after a significant c4 spinal cord injury while motorcycling. It was capable of taking the edge off, but was mostly ineffective and managed to kill my libido. Weaned myself off...cold turkey can be an issue for some. It does work for some folks, but so do placebos. Weight gain and cycling performance were non issues.

[c60rider]

@tarmackev I don't know which country you're in but in the UK Pregabalin (along with it's close friend Gabapentin) have been massively over prescribed for chronic pain. Chronic meaning duration longer than 3 months although people are often prescribed this much earlier for some reason. At this point much pain is as a result of a memory in the nervous system called neuropathic pain. Historically Pregabalin and Gabapentin were anti-depressants in much larger doses but in small doses they were shown to help with neuropathic pain. In recent years they have also been shown to be addictive so coupled with the over-prescription of them has caused problems. So in the UK they are only prescribed in the worst, chronic cases these days when all other treatment options have been exhausted.

I would say you need to identify the cause of the back pain and address that. Either through a physiotherapist (or osteopath or chiropractor) or have some investigation done. If the pain is local to the back only ie is not affecting either or both legs then radiological investigation (X ray or MRI) is not indicated much to the disgust of most patients who think it's going to tell them what hurts. Investigation will not tell us that. They'll only show if a nerve is being irritated by some structure resulting in leg symptoms. In the absence of any leg symptoms I wouldn't waste my time getting investigations done. Most general practitioners in this country (UK) tend to just prescribe drugs and in most cases the majority of symptoms (80% plus) will have settled by 6 to 8 weeks.

[patchsurfer]

I haven't come across those two drugs, but I have been prescribed Norflex (another anti-spasmodic) for my back - I have a l4-l5 spondy and periodically (maybe once or twice a year) get acute episodes. While I agree with what others have said about addressing the root cause, I've found Norflex to be really useful as an absolute first step when it goes. Getting treatment of one sort or another asap after the event is critical, using even one dose of norflex buys hours in which to either self-treat or get to an osteo. The longer my back is in acute spasm, the longer the recovery will be...those one or two doses typically allow me space to get onto the floor and start on myofascial release work and stretching within half an hour, max...so yeah...for me, it has a place.

[Dennisbley]

Can be effective for nerve pain, musculoskeletal pain not so much. Lyrica has fewer side effects than its older cousin gabapentin.
Is it appropriate? Hard to say with information given.


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[Djakninn]

I've just started experimenting with THC and CBD infused gummies for low back muscle spasms and my experimentation so far has pleasantly surprised me. BTW, i'm not a stoner and can't say i love the feeling of the high, but basically i have been taking a gummy approx 1 hour before i aim to get to bed and as soon as i start to feel it kick in i hit the pillow. After about 5 days there was a marked improvement. After 4 weeks i ceased and about 5 days after again i was getting the same spasms.It wasn't a complete cure all, but i would say that i had about more than a 50% reduction in muscle pain in my back and the dodgy TFL pain that i've had in my right leg completely disappeared and is still good these few weeks after. Previously i had tried a few high quality CBD oils on its own but it didn't improve anything that i was aware of (Mind,sleep, aches,etc). I'll be repeating my experiment in about 2 months time to see if it was a fluke occurrence. Weirdly, i got down to my lowest BW in about 25 years during this time as well!

[shaneh]

I was diagnosed with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome after foot surgery 2 years ago. I've spent long periods on both Pregabalin and gabapentin. As well as the extended release version of Gabapentin, Gralise. Of the 3, the Gralise has the least side effects. Lyrica made me stupid. I couldn't remember nouns. Names escaped me. Things like a doorknob. I knew what it was. And knew the name of the door. But the only thing that would come out of my mouth would be something like "That thing on the door that you turn to open it." My fiance was say "You mean a doorknob?" It was that bad. So I went to Gabapentin. Which was not as good as Lyrica at reducing the nerve pain. But I could remember doorknob and other nouns. LOL. But to the palative dose of Gabapentin is 1800mg, broken up to 3 doses a day. That became tough to manage, especially with any travel. The Gralise is 1 dose a day with or after dinner. Only problem with it was that UHC stopped covering it's $900 cost a month. I recently went back on it, though, after the company making it started offering coupons for $25 monthly supplies. You gotta love drug companies. We're going to bill your insurance company 36x what we charge you cash.