lyrica warning

I have fibromyalgia and so does my sister.  She has been on lyrica for about a year and a half.  Over the past 6-8 months she has been experiencing stroke and damencia symptoms, sluring her words and unable to carry on a conversation.  She has been in the hospital 5 times since July.  They have done every test under the sun and haven't been able to find a thing wrong with her.   She stopped taking lyrica 2 weeks ago and OMG, she is back to her old self.  I talked to her the other day and she is back to normal.  She was watching TV the other night and there was an ad stating there is a class action lawsuit against the makers of lyrica due to other people experiencing the same symptoms she had.  My doctor has cut my dose in half and put me on another type of pain medication.  Please be careful, if you start showing signs of these symptoms contact your phyician as soon as possible.

I'm glad your sister had the thought to discontinue that me it could have had a long time affect.I hope she feel better and everything is OK.

I have not tried Lyrica but I've try cymbalta.  I can't began to tell you how I felt I knew it had to be the cymbalta because it was the only new one that I was on. I refuse to try anymore new meds it really scared me. I got a table and started writing things down when I was feel it, it was the worst kind of feeling that you can have. It was worst than before I was told 20 something
years ago about my fibromyalia. I'm going by if it not broke
don't try to fix it. No more new fibrom meds for me, I is my PC on Tues. and going to tell him for get trying to change my meds.
We are going thru to much trying to learn how to eat right and now trying to make sure of the med side affects.

I pray you are able to get some sort of relief from the fibro.  I have tried a lot of different meds that just don't work, but I am not sure if there is anything out there that can work perfectly for all symptoms.  My PCP is trying to ween me off a lot of my meds or get me to the lowest dose to see how I do.  Too many side effects from all of them.  I can barely take a tylenol without permission first.  I do hurt a lot, but trying to deal with the pain is better than the alternative.  Have a great day and God bless.

I am both on Lyrica and cymbalta and I've not had any of the side effects your sister has.
However, I am glad she found out that is what was causing her issues.
I am on 150mg x2 a day and I feel it's "not enough".
I think my body has built up a tolerance to the medication and I still ache and hurt on a daily basis.
I will be watching for these side effects from the Lyrica, but I've been on it for about two years now.  I think if I were going to have any of these things happen, they would have by now.
Thank you for the warning, and again I'm glad your sister is feeling back to her old self again.
Donna

Hi Donna,
     I am sorry to hear you are hurting like you are.  My doctor cut my lyrica back to 150 mg a day from 300mg.  I have been having trouble with swelling and weight gain.  She put me on hydrocodone(?sp) at bed time.  It doesn't help either.  I also take cymbalta which she has cut me back to 60 mg. per day.  Yes, I do hurt, but I have learned to accept it most days.  For me the alternative to not hurting is death, and I am not quite ready to go home to meet my Lord just yet.  I hope that if I am approved for the GBP and that getting this weight off might help my symptoms.  God bless you.
Nancy 

wow ... i am so sorry about your sister. My Mom and sister both also have fibro as do I. Also some cousins in Mom's family have fibro.

I could not tolerated Lyrica at all! I am on gabapetin (neurotin).

I have been having trouble with Lyrica causing weight gain and swelling in my feet and hands.  I did not know there was another medicine to use for fibromyalgia.  I will talk to my doc about the gabapetin.  Thanks.

A friend of mine went on Lyrica when it first came out.  She has MS.  It made her pretty dopey.  I'm glad some people have had good results, but ya gotta be careful with meds!

Yes, meds can be tricky.  What will work for one might not work for someone else.  Thanks for replying.

I have it too and to was on the lyrica.  I think it did help with my pain but it constantly made me wanna eat and I gained like 13 lbs in 2 weeks.  My doc switched me to the cymbalta and I also take nuerontin but I still have pain.  I sometimes think they are both just a waste of co-pay money and I should just not take either of them.  I'm hoping that after my surgery next week and after losing weight, maybe I'll start feeling better and my doc might let me work my way off of them and see how I feel.  At least you can rest assured that you aren't crazy and you aren't alone and that other know what you are going through.  I suggest finding your favorite bubble bath and taking a nice hot bath.  We have an enormous jetted tub and it always makes me feel a little better.