Chronic Nerve Pain

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What is better for nerve pain - Neurontin or Lyrica? I had surgery in both knees and an injection in my back. I also have osteoarthritis.

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Hello, Brenda! How are you?

They have both been shown to be effective for some people, but the only way to see which one helps you is by trying one.

They are both classified by the FDA as anticonvulsants that are approved to treat nerve pain and some mood disorders. Their typical side effects may possibly include nausea, dizziness, headache, dry mouth and weight gain.

Which one has your doctor recommended?

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Hi, Brenda; it may have taken me a while to come across your post but pregabalin (patent brand Pfizer LYRICA) is over twice the potency of gabapentin (Pfizer NEURONTIN). I personally can take neither - I was prescribed and titrated up to the maximum dosage of pregabalin, 300mg twice daily, but I suffered amnesia, ataxia, and gained no relief whatever. What I DID gain were hundreds of bruises due to stumbling around and bumping into coffee tables, doors, doorposts, beds, cabinets, lampposts, concrete bollards, other street furniture etc, and was questioned by the Police on suspicion of being drunk and incapable of looking after myself in public - and no, I do NOT drink alcohol at all... it was the most dreadful drug I have ever been prescribed; totally ineffective with the most awful and painful side effects. It was supposed to be for my lumbar pain, which is of muscular origin, after carisoprodol was banned in the vast majority of the world, but the stupid, ignorant woman I have the misfortune to have as my doctor failed to notice that both gabapentin and pregabalin are for NEUROPATHIC pain, and have no skeletomuscular relaxant activity at all. A friend who DOES need such a drug and is prescribed the same 600mg pregabalin daily finds it superb and perfectly efficacious. He was transferred onto pregabalin from gabapentin five or six years ago now, and swears that the former is a much more effective drug for his condition than gabapentin.

I believe that only a certain percentage of the population can tolerate either of these two drugs, and I just have the misfortune to be one of those who do not. Of course, I should never have been prescribed either in the first place because they are not indicated for the conditions which they were prescribed to treat, and I suffered badly from the four or five months I was on LYRICA. My mother thought I was permanently drunk whilst taking them, as did a lot of people who thought that I had had some sort of personality shift and taken to the bottle as a form of self medication! But as I said, if you find gabapentin is doing what it is meant to, then pregabalin will do it better, and you will probably need a lower dosage. Talk it through with your doctor, and see what they think.

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I have a lot of neuropathic pain in my feet, legs, forearms and hands. I am on 800mg x 3 a day gabapentin, totalling 2400mg. I am still in lots of pain. What should I ask my doctor to prescribe for me?

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