Any GPs about or other drs who know about pregabalin withdrawal ?

[funkybobbles]

Long story short, pharmacist forgot to give me pregabalin in my nomad box, which is the box where all my daily meds are separated into morning /lunch/ evening sections and I just swallow everything in that section. (I'm on multiple meds)

I've just realised that the pregabalin isn't in this months boxes....that's the last three weeks. I've gone from 300mg per day to zero, overnight, when I changed from last months boxes to this months.

I didn't realise until today. I'm concerned about whether this sudden withdrawal will have done any long term damage? I had hideous sleeplessness, anxiety and depression for seven to ten days and I couldn't understand it at the time, it was awful, and now I know they are withdrawal symptoms from pregabalin and you're supposed to do it slowly,

Should I go back on it now, three weeks later? The nerve pain I was taking it for hasn't got any worse in the last few weeks. Is it likely to now, or would I have seen a deterioration by now? Is the drug out of my system by now and can I expect that hideous sleeplessness (still taking sleeping pills as a result) or anxiety or depression to lift now?

Hi, I am not a doctor, or any kind of healthcare professional, and I hope someone who is one can help you better than I can (though I would speak to your own GP or pharmacist in the morning).

However, I take pregabalin now, and had to come off gapapentin (very similar chemical structure and same withdrawal) cold turkey due to having a rare allergic reaction to it. Like you, I panicked a bit about doing it (no choice), but the neurosurgery department told me it is fine to come off cold turkey, just unpleasant. Apparently the withdrawal effects are because the brain has to get used to making the correct levels of neurotransmitters again.

I have recently reduced my pregabalin (tapered), and I think it took about 6 weeks to feel fully normal again regarding sleep, mood and spasms, though improvement was continual. I don't know whether I would go back on them in your position. I tend to think that fewer drugs is best (am on multiple too) and pregabalin has a lot of side effects if not necessary to control pain.

I actually got rebound pain (apparently quite common, according to GP), so the nerve pain was much worse for a week or so after withdrawing before going back to the usual level. Pregabalin is metabolised fairly quickly, and it is unlikely there is any of the actual drug left in your system any more. I would not expect the nerve pain to get worse as a result of not taking the pregabalin.

I think that you should report the incident to the pharmacy if you haven't done so already, so that they can review their practices. Hope you start to feel better soon

@lyrebird1 thank you, your post has been very helpful. It looks like the GP stopped the repeat prescription without telling me or tapering it off.