Gabapentin vs Pregabalin

[LukeTheDuke]

What are your experiences regarding Gabapentin vs Pregabalin?

• Is there a clearly better one among those two?
• Who do you recommend to take which one under which circumstances?
• Do they have different (side) effects?
• Does it make sense to combine them?
• Do they interact differently with other drugs, e.g. CBD?

I am very grateful for any insight/ experience. Thanks a lot in advance

[Imc188222]

I was on Gabapentin and Lyrica (pregabalin) at the same time for 3yrs because of nerve pain. When I quit Gabapentin all sorts of nasty side affects went away and I lost 40lbs. The side affects were cognitive, memory, hand twitches, really bad dry mouth, etc etc.
I know everyone's experiences are different but I advise everyone that asks to stay far away from Gabapentin.

[Woofy]

I was on Lyrica (pregabalin) hand twitches,.

Interesting, I've been getting the hand twitches for the last few months and could not figure out why, bit of a bitch when you have a cup of tea or a bowl of cereal in your hand. I've been on Lyrica for a few years, highest dosage being 900mg per day, at the moment I'm on 600mg daily, it is something I'd like to get off of, weight gain around the mid section is a bitch, my Neuro pain is too bad though, my pain specialist is trying a few things but nothing to date, I had botox to the hip flexors and a steroid epidural a few months ago, I think it took a slight edge off.

[funklab]

I was on Gabapentin and Lyrica (pregabalin) at the same time for 3yrs because of nerve pain. When I quit Gabapentin all sorts of nasty side affects went away and I lost 40lbs. The side affects were cognitive, memory, hand twitches, really bad dry mouth, etc etc.
I know everyone's experiences are different but I advise everyone that asks to stay far away from Gabapentin.

That's pretty bizarre that they had you on both at the same time. They do the same thing and act on the same receptors. One would think they would just go up on whichever you were on first rather than adding the other.


With regard to Luke's question:
Pregabalin is absorbed more easily in the body and it gets into the blood stream more quickly. It is associated with more "euphoria" reported by people who take it and thus is a controlled substance (gabapentin is becoming a controlled substance in some states).
It would be very hard to give a rational physiologic reason for giving both at the same time, they act on the exact same receptors, it's just that gabapentin takes longer to be absorbed (and lots of it never is absorbed at higher doses). They have very similar side effects, but perhaps (possibly) gabapentin has more side effects because you need a higher dose to get to the same blood levels (because it is poorly absorbed).

I wouldn't worry about taking CBD with it, because the doses people take of CBD these days are laughably small compared to the actual effective doses that have been proven in studies (only to help with epilepsy and possibly schizophrenia). Unless you're taking 400-800 mg per day of CBD (so like $50 plus worth of CBD every day) there's not any scientific evidence to suggest that you're getting any benefit other than a placebo effect.

You definitely need to let whomever is prescribing the gabapentin know what other medications and over the counter drugs/supplements you are taking so they can make sure there are no interactions.