Lyrica/Pregabalin

[Margaret122maryL]

Can someone give me a bit of hope about pregabalin brain fog? I adjusted somewhat to 100 mg and am now on 150 every night. The latest increase started 10 days ago.

I am also on Tramadol 50 in late afternoon. It wakes me up, and is such a relief after spending the day fighting the fog. (The neurologist believes me but says he has never encountered that wake-up reaction to Tramadol)

Restless legs are under good control and my neurologist says it’s better to be foggy than totally exhausted but I’d like to be my normal self. Is that possible? Few of the self-reports I read on internet are hopeful about losing the fog, and I keep telling myself that it’s the dissatisfied who report—the satisfied are out there living their lives, too busy to report. Am I correct? Will this pass?

Thanks.

[Polar Bear]

I take pregabalin 300 x 2 daily and I'm not aware of any brain fog. It's prescribed for burning and numbness sensory issues in my legs from diabetes. It's a bonus that it should also help with my rls symptoms for which I'm prescribed Codeine.
I understand that Tramadol has an alerting factor but have no links to confirm this and (I think) have just read it somewhere.

[Rustsmith]

I have taken tramadol in the past and had issues with it causing alerting, just like other opioids. To get around that, I asked to get the ER version, which works for 24 hrs. I would take it at lunchtime and the alerting properties had gone away by my bedtime. The ER form is more expensive, but the convenience of 1/day made it worthwhile for me.

[Dr.Placebo]

i will share my own observations regarding pregabalin/Lyrica, having just started it myself. As background, I am a physician (disabled by RLS and unable to work after practicing for 30 yrs and used to prescribe gabapentin and rarely Lyrica, but not for RLS)) and also I am quite observant of my own mind and body and keep careful notes of all my reactions to the various drugs I have tried for RLS.

At this time (full disclosure: only 3 days into my treatment with pregabalin) I am of the opinion that many, if not all the bad effects may be due to WITHDRAWAL from the medication if taken once a day rather than a side effect of the medicine itself. You see, pregabalin is used off-label for RLS and was intended to be taken twice daily, not just at bedtime. My experimentation is not done yet (I haven't tried taking it every 12 hours) but here is my evidence:

After taking Lyrica in the evening, I had no RLS/PLM and slept. Next day felt awful, shaky, brain fog, dysphoric. Lasted all day. Late evening I took my Lyrica and slept through the night. Woke feeling unrested, with brain fog, shakiness, fatigue. Again waited all day for symptoms to wear off thinking they were medication after-effects, but they never wore off, and I descended in profound dysphoria, depression with thoughts of suicide not related to anything objective. It was horrible.

Here's the interesting part: It was such an awful experience I was afraid to take my evening dose at 8 PM but my wife convinced me to do so. WITHIN 20 MINUTES OF TAKING LYRICA 25 MG ALL THE BAD SYMPTOMS COMPLETELY RESOLVED, and I actually felt good, my mind became almost totally clear and I was a little energized. I was able to get off the couch, smile, talk to my wife.

This relief of symptoms by TAKING the med suggests the horrible symptoms were due to withdrawal. Now the question is, do I want to take this drug TWICE daily and be completely dependent on it, knowing I will go through awful withdrawal if I miss a single dose???

Lastly, everything I am saying is suspect and unreliable, because I am simultaneously recovering from COVID-19 lol...but I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience?. IF ANYONE IS TAKING LYRICA TWICE DAILY PLEASE CHIME IN AND LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING BRAIN FOG, DYSPHORIA, ETC. Thanks.

Paul

[Dr.Placebo]

P.S. I will continue to keep you updated as I continue my treatment with pregabalin.

[Polar Bear]

I take Pregabalin/Lyrica twice daily. I'm unaware of brain fog. I feel more or less normal.
Any negatives I may have could be as the result of a med or could just be one of my various conditions.
However, For a long time I've been taking so many meds for various issues that to be honest I've no idea who 'I would be' without these meds.
Perhaps my 'normal' would be vastly different without any particular med, Lyrica included.
Certainly not disphoria.
I have been told to always take two doses of Lyrica daily. When I at one time considered reducing it, I mentioned reducing the morning dose and was told most definitely not. The two daily doses must be the same to avoid a withdrawal.

[Dr.Placebo]

Thank you, Polar Bear! That helps my decision-making.

BTW, today, after taking pregabalin at 8PM last night I once again felt shaky, weak and brain foggy in the morning. My mood was better today (no depression or suicidal ideation) thanks to a 2-hour virtual meditation sit, however I still was shaky, tired and weak and had to lie down on the couch. Unable to nap b/o twitching. So, tired of being pathetic, at 2 PM (an hour ago) decided to take a second dose of pregabalin 25 mg and am feeling quite a bit better tho still a bit funny/druggy in the head. Still don't know how much is my COVID fatigue tho. Hard to tease apart causes and effects.

But from what you are saying, and my own experience, it seems that dosing twice daily is the way to go. I guess I will just allow myself to become dependent on it in order to function. I will be getting IV iron soon (I hope) and maybe it will be a miracle cure and I will be able to wean off the meds!! I hope so because currently I have no way of getting a prescription for opioids.

[Polar Bear]

Just to note - Something we often remind rls sufferers is that often meds don't work the same for each of us.
Also we do need to remind ourselves that although we may be dependent on a med, we are not addicted. Addiction is when a drug is taken to achieve a 'high'.

[sarahpatto]

Hi, I am wondering if I should try to wean myself off of Pregabalin before my IV iron treatment coming up in 12 days? Won't it be easier to tell if the iron is helping my RLS if I'm not on Pragabalin?

[Rustsmith]

It will take a couple of weeks before the infusion starts to have any effect. It is your decision, but if I were in your place, I would wait until later before thinking about tapering your Lyrica dose. I wouldn't want to suffer through the time where your body is processing the iron into ferritin.

[sarahpatto]

That's helpful advice, thank you.

[sarahpatto]

(Just editing this post because I see it doesn't belong under Lyrica/Pregabalin heading! I'm not taking Lyrica at this moment.) Now it's been 3 months since my iron injections and unfortunately, the RLS does not seem to have been helped by them. My iron levels are sky high but I can't say that I experienced a period of relief from RLS. Am now wondering where to turn next.