My 18 year old daughter has been on 150mg of Lyrica 3x a day for 2 months for nerve pain in her foot after a stingray injury and 2 surgeries. Her nerve pain is gone and the side effects of Lyrica are really effecting her. How important is it to wean off the Lyrica very slowly? Are there withdrawal symptoms that people experience?
How important is it to wean off lyrica slowly?
- Asked
- 16 Sep 2012 by mom2jjc
- Updated
- 4 days ago
- Topics
- lyrica, pain, neuralgia, side effect, nerves
Responses (14)
It's more important that than the original care she received. Contact the prescribing physician and advise of the situation, follow the instructions for decreasing to the letter. The more time and the more gradual the better. The sides she is experiencing now are pure joy compared to what the consequences and WD from stopping to fast/on your own can be. Just my 2-cents, hope it helps.
Yes, she could experience some mild withdrawal if she doesn't take a week to 10 days to taper off the Lyrica. Symptoms of withdrawal from Lyrica may include agitation, mood swings and possible diarrhea. There is no need to go through a long taper process, but reducing her daily dosage by 150mgs every 3 -4 days should be sufficient to avoid withdrawals.
thank you for taking the time to write back!
I am on pregabalin for fybromyalgia, 75mg x2a day, they are helping some of my painful areas but not all, Ifeel Drs do not understand, and fob me off by puting every thing down to my fybromyalgia, I have long suffered this problem according to Drs I have managed to keep of medication as I don't like putting chemicles into my body, then in Jan of this year I had fluoroscopy for my rotary cuff tear 3 or4 days latter I was in a wheel chair unable to walk, my hands seized up I was in chronic pain the Drs said it was my fybromyalgia but I don't think they can put every thing down to fybromyalgia, am I wrong or has anyone else had similar experience, oh by the way I am coming of the pregabalin, it's like putting a band aid around problems .
Hi mom2jjc - I hope you are well and that you are enjoying your experience here at DC. Your post caught my attention so I wanted to chime in here as well.
If your daughter has the 75mg capsules and did the typical tapering "up" to get at her clinical dose... she would do the reverse in tapering "off". So she would reduce something like this:
Every 2 days reduce her dose by ONE, 75mg capsule until she is off.
If she has 150mg capsules I would suggest she take it like this:
Every 2 days reduce her dose by ONE, 150mg capsule until she is off. Sometimes they recommend a slightly slower taper, too. If she wants to do that then "EVERY 3 DAYS... REDUCE INGESTION BY ONE, 150MG CAPSULE...
If she has any withdrawal symptoms... she can ask her doctor for a mild or low dose of diazepam or clonazepam. Neither of these meds has a propensity toward withdrawal symptoms when taken for less than 3 weeks.
Good luck and I hope your daughter recovers soon and back to her same self quickly.
Mary
Thank you for your help!
My pleasure and I hope your daughter doesn't have to go through that again!
: (
Mary
I get the same thing with the lyrica... do u ever have problems with blood pressure along with the headaches?
I have migraines and blood pressure went from 97/60 to 138/94 was really low. I ended up in the er last weekend and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Had swelling all over my body so bad in legs and feet I couldn't walk, tremors, confusion, no sleep for 3 days but exhausted all the time, gained 20 lbs in 5 weeks 15 in last two weeks, vision issues, echoing inside my head, hot flashes, burning and tingling in limbs. And the er just let me leave and drive home didn't even think to check into the increase I had in my lyricia a week prior to feeling this badly. I think it's the lyricia I'm trying to taper back down to my original dose of 50 mg twice a day suppose to be three times a day. I increased to 225 a day and need to get off it I think. I feel horrible. Like I'm gonna die if this is the medication and I have been having a reaction the hole time I have been on it. WOW. Any feedback is welcome.
They say don't use the Internet for medical advice so - I have been on 225mg Lyria morning and night for 2 years.
I said to my specialist that I did not think they were helping with the pain but were making me thick headed and could I stop them - his comment was just stop.
So I have and no side effects at all!
So you just stopped? I am on 75mg and i don’t feel it’s helping at all. Gaining weight and BP way too high.
@rickyb
Ta for your very interesting comments. I am over 65 and dont know if i should wean off like u as I would love to. Im on 75 mg Lyrica twice a day and its definitely having an effect on my memory. What age bracket are you?
Hi @Gogee
How are you now? Good luck.
i am on 150 twice daily what is the safe amount i can reduce this by
I was on Lyrica 75 mg once per day for 2 years after 2 15-hour spine surgeries with hardware. I started getting ankle swelling, twitches, fatigue, diarrhea, increased hunger, weight gain, forgetfulness. I weaned off by taking 75mg every other day for two weeks then 75 mg every three days for three weeks, then off. Yes, I have increased pain, but the nasty side effects are gone. I didn't realize what was causing the side effects until I stopped. I feel much better.
I was taking 600 mg per day. Have been for years now. Getting off it as the side affects are just as bad as the cure. I gained 30 pounds, it affected my eyesight, my hearing, my memory. I'm always tired, depressed. I get rapid heart palpitations. I get hotflashes and on and on. I'm getting off it very slowly as the side affect are just as bad. I go down 25 mg every few WEEKS and they are not too bad. It might take longer but you won't feel so sick. It's been about a year now and I'm down to 100 mg per day. Don't be in a hurry(not worth it). Don't bother asking your doctor about it as they don't really believe that you get all these side affects when your on it or when your trying to stop taking it. I told my doctor what I was doing. If people are reading these sites to decide if they should try lyrica, DON'T DO IT!!! You will regret it! It comes a point that it stops working anyway. Good luck everyone!
I found out through my own experience that it is very important to wean off Lyrica slowly. There are side effects and withdrawal symptoms, legs aching, nauseous, my stomach hurt, I felt so lethargic, typical withdrawal symptoms like you would experience weaning off of a pain medication. I hope this helps, I know the side effects of Lyrica can be a little heavy at first but I have gotten used to my dose and it doesn't make me dizzy anymore. But it's wonderful that her pain is gone, and it definitely makes sense to stop the Lyrica, but don't do it suddenly. Just take her down slowly, do you have enough medication to wean her off? Will her doctor help you with that?
I am so thankful I came to this site and found this conversation! I realize some of the answers are old and I pray that everyone with such extreme problems has found relief! I'm a retired nurse but I am woefully bad at research when it comes to my own health issues. I trusted a pain clinic for 15+ years. I was on such a high does of a narcotic that only one Dr in the clinic would prescribe my meds each month. I have detoxed off everything and am now wanting to get off the Lyrica that was added years ago. What some of you mention- the fluctuation of blood pressure, headaches, ER visit for a sudden increase in heart rate to 130 for hours ... Lyrics being the cause never occurred to me. At my highest I was on 50 mg 4 times a day. I didn't stay there long b/c it wasn't helping and the expense of the drug is huge. I was going to wean off the narcotics and the Lyrica at the same time but knew that was not smart.
Hi Pawlove. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a notification that you were making more comments on this thread. I’m glad to hear that you’re migraines are gone and that you’ve tapered down more. I hope that you’re doing it slowly. We have a saying that goes ‘Slow wins the race’. It is very important for you to stick to at least 10% every 2 weeks. If you feel like your body can take more then that’s fine. The closer you get to the end you will probably have to go slower. I’ve been having a hard time also! These types of drugs can do a lot of damage. I can’t tell you how long it will take you to feel normal again because everyone is different. I will tell you that it can be done and you can do it! Hang in there and take care. If you need to talk or just to rant I’m here. I will do whatever I can to help you get through this. You are not alone. xo
I have to add to a post I put a few weeks ago about weaning off Lyrica. I had just started the decrease from 50 mg 3 x's a day for over a decade. I had my Dr write for a month of 25 mg capsules so I could really take it slow. The nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, stomach pain, burning skin and vision issues have been terrible. I have been at 25 mg 1 x/day for 12 days. The diarrhea has stopped but I am still nauseated and hardly able to eat. My stomach feels like I have a fire in it and after eating some pizza 2 days ago I could trace my intestines because of the feeling of fire in them as well. I am taking pepcid 2x's a day plus usually pepto bismol 2-3 x's a day. I have tried everything for nausea and the phenergan seems to help over other Rx's and hemp oil. I have also tried OTC med for motion sickness.
It is very important to taper off Lyrica slowly! You should start out tapering at no more than 10% and you should hold there for about 2 weeks. Then you can continue doing that and go by how your body feels as to whether you should taper lower than 10% and/or longer than 2 weeks. When you get closer to the end many people have to taper at a lower rate. I hope everyone is doing well. Take care xo
Cindy59
Thanks Cindy and everyone else who has added to this discussion. Every time I think I am feeling a tad better the nausea and dizziness come back. I was better yesterday, yuck today and have been at 25 mg 1 x day for 14 days now. Since 25 mg is the lowest dose capsule (right?) does anyone know if the capsules emptied into a measured amount of warm water and mixed well and a divided dose used- does it do anything to the medication itself? The capsules themselves melt quickly in warm water and when I went to 50 mg a day I tried taking it that way in 1/2 doses AM and PM before my Dr wrote for the 25 mg caps. I have left over 50 mg capsules that I will use up when I go below 25 mg a day, or even to continue at that dose if it is OK to melt the capsules. Thanks again!
Hi again to everyone who has been helpful. I cannot believe what Lyrica has done to my body. I stayed at 25 mg/day for a full month. I had been on 50 mg 3x's day for over a decade and after detoxing off 15 years of narcotics from a pain clinic, after several months I started having really weird symptoms and finally realized it was the Lyrica. I went from 150/day to 50 mg/day fairly fast and then to 25 mg/day and had 3 weeks of horrible detox.

Further Information
- Lyrica Information for Consumers
- Lyrica Information for Healthcare Professionals (includes dosage details)
- Side Effects of Lyrica (detailed)
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Thank you for taking the time to write me back!
I am on 30 my 1 x d and ran out for 5 days and was miserable for those 5 days. You have to go slowly when reducing . very important!