I'm on Lyrica, 75mg 3x a day. I'm tapering off 25mg at a time. Right now, I'm taking 75mg in the morning, 50mg early afternoon, and 75mg at night. How should I progress? Take one of the 75mg doses down to 50mg also.. Or take the 50mg down to 25mg? The doctor spreader the doses out like that due to I was getting inter-dosing withdrawal from just two doses. And if it's to take one of the 75mg doses down, which one? Morning or night?
I have talked to my doc, they said it was up to me. I'm just trying to reduce any withdrawals. (I dropped 75mg all at once to begin with and had horrible withdrawals for about 3 days)
Thank you for any advice
Added 22 Sep 2017:
Spreaded out my doses...not spreader. Hate auto correct. :)
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4 Answers
TH
Thelmalou475
1 Sep 2019
I took six months to wean myself off this drug. Really slow. 25 mgs at a time. I was doing okay until I went from 75mg to 50, 50 to 25 and 25 to nothing. It was rough but I am still so happy to be off this drug. I will never ever take this or any kind of drug like this again. I will do a heck of a lot more research before just going to the drug store with a new prescription to get filled. Good luck with the wean but like I said, just take it slow. :)
Votes: +3
PG
Pghchick
4 April 2020
I am weaning off of Pregabalin, 25 mg at a time. Was up to 225mg daily, and I am down to 25mg a day. It has been 7 days in this dose. Since I am on such a low dose, I would like to now simply discontinue. If anyone has done the same type of weaning, going from 25 mg to 0 without withdrawal difficulty I would like to know. If you had difficulty, I would like to know also.
CI
cindy-59
31 Aug 2019
When you are tapering off medications like Lyrica, Cymbalta and Gabapentin it’s advised to not take it every other day then every third day and so on. Doing it this way can most likely put you in withdrawals on the days you’re not taking the medication. It’s been found that the best and safest way to taper is by 10% every 2 weeks. If you’re taking one of these medications more than once daily and you are tapering off it’s best to work slow at getting your doses equal. Then once that’s done you can start tapering off all doses at the same time. You can get liquid Lyrica for tapering or you can make it yourself. It’s 1-1 ratio. You can also get it done at a Compounding Pharmacy if you have one near you. There are support groups that will help you and guide you through your taper. You can find very valuable information on these medications in the files.
Such as; advise for tapering, natural things that will help through the tapering and after tapering and natural ways to help you with many illnesses. I’ve tapered completely off Lyrica and I’m tapering off Cymbalta now. I’m down from 60 mg to less than 1 mg (5 beads) and I’ve done it by 10% every two weeks. The withdrawal symptoms have been minimal and manageable. Personally I will never take another medication like these again and I will never advise anyone else to take them. They change who we are and they change our lives negatively. I had no life while on these medications but thankfully I have my life back; with no permanent damage. Bless you all and I hope you are able to get off these medications and find a better way to help you. Cindy
Votes: +5
SP
spacetrash
2 Sep 2019
Cindy is right, I forgot that Lyrica is different in terms of how to taper from say, pain drugs. Thanks for saying this, Cindy.
CI
cindy-59
3 Sep 2019
You’re very welcome spacetrash. After having to taper off Lyrica and also Cymbalta I try to let everyone know that they need to be tapered off slower than other medications. I have talked to many people who tapered off too fast and they went through a hard time for many months after.
MA
mandapaige83
16 July 2021
Cindy I am also on lyric and Cymbalta. I was told to stop my lyrics because they thought it was what was making me So tired. So I did as my doctor instructed and came off of it in 6 days. WOW. I have never felt so bad nor been so sick in my life. On day 6 I couldn’t handle it anymore. I was about to drive myself to the Er when finally my general practitioner called me back. I explain to her what was going on and she said that was crazy to tell me to come off in only 6 days. I was literally going crazy. She told me to take one of my 150mg right then and continue back on it normally for a week. Then we would start tapering again the right way. I was scared to death to come off it again so I chose to stay taking it. Since my husband left and I almost lost me business I have don’t a lot of research on it and believe it has cause alit of my medical problems. I don’t think I would even have as much wrong with me medically if it weren’t foe the lyrica.
So I have decided to go off it again completely. I was just wondering what made you decide to come off of the Cymbalta also. If you don’t mind sharing. I’m sorry for the Long story.
I’m pretty sure she means that you skip a pill at first every other day, and as time goes on skip two days. In other words, let’s say you are taking one pill a day of something, when you’re nearly done with your detox. When you are ready to detox all the way, as I understand it, you would start taking that pill every OTHER day for a couple of weeks. And after that, take the pill every 3rd day for a couple of weeks. And so on until it is completely detoxed. I am not a doctor, not even close, just a person in chronic pain. So you definitely would want to verify this with your doctor. And never detox from anything without medical supervision.I hope to get rid of Lyrica also.
Votes: +3
CA
Carolyn Sutton
21 Nov 2017
Check with your doctor first, but one way of weaning off any medication is to take it 2nd daily for one week, then 3rd daily for 1 week & so on. This way is effective for most medications. But, please check with your doctor first so he/she can ok it.
Votes: +0
BE
beachwoman
19 Oct 2018
What do you mean by what you said?
BE
beachwoman
19 Oct 2018
What do you mean by 1st daily for one week, 2nd daily for one week? Thanks.
