New On Lyrica

I just started taking Lyrica 3 days ago. Can't wait to see if it works. I have degenerative disc disease and scolisos. Today has been a real bad day painwise.

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i have only been on Lyrcia /75mg, for 2 days.. i could tell tha it did stop or calm the pain, i have spinal stenosis, with possible surgery in the future. the side effects seem terrible. but it seems to work .?

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I have spinal scoliosis, with degenerative disc disease and spinal arthritis and had no luck with any of this class of meds, they did nothing for me.

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so far only three days on meds really cannot feel a difference. How long do you think it take for the meds to kick in (lyrcia) gloria

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Hi Gloria.

Well, since I have no way of knowing how much you know about drugs and Lyrica in particular, I am going to explain this, and please don't think I am talking down to you or anything, but many people are not aware of what these drugs really are, what classification they have and how they work.

First off, I want to make it clear that Lyrica is NOT an analgesic or pain reliever. It is not a narcotic, nor an NSAID, so it will NOT work like one.

That said, these drugs do work on various nerves in the body, so in some conditions where nerve damage or injury is causing someone to suffer from chronic pain, they can help. They act on the nerve receptors to help block the signal that tells your brain to feel pain in your body.

However, if your injury or pain is NOT due to a nerve related condition, such as a pinched nerve or nerve damage, then they will not help to relieve your pain.

Since, as I said, this is not an analgesic, these meds must be taken for awhile as the effect on the body is cumulative. Generally, depending on your body and metabolism, this can take from 2 weeks to a month, which means it will also take that long before you see any effects and know if the drug is going to help you.

Many doctors, nurses, and pharmacists make the mistake of telling people that this is a pain med, which leads people to assume that they are going to experience effects or benefits shortly after they start taking the drug, like you would with an anti-inflammatory or a narcotic.

This, of course, creates many misunderstandings and much frustration on the part of pain sufferers as they start taking this and have it help their pain very quickly.

So basically, 3 days for this type of drug, is nowhere near long enough to know if it is going to help you at all yet.

For it to build up to therapeutic levels in the body and see if it will help relieve your pain, you will have to continue taking it as prescribed for at least a month.

This also explains why many people, who just take it for a few days and find that it is not helping that fast, call their doctors to complain and find that their doctor is not willing to switch them to something else yet, they simply have not given it enough time to work.

So the basic rule of thumb is to continue taking it for a full month, and then see if it has helped. Most people will start feeling some effects at around 2 weeks of regular dosing and then the full therapeutic potential of your current dose should be reached around 4 weeks.

Many doctors like these drugs because they can help people with chronic pain conditions and they do not have the nasty side effects of narcotics. In addition, your dosage can also be taken up higher than traditional pain killers, until you reach the amount that provides you with the maximum pain relief benefit.

If, at the end of 30days, you feel no effect from them at all, then chances are that these types of meds will not help with whatever is causing your pain and you will need to try some other alternative.

As I said above, my condition is similar to the one mentioned by the original poster, I have severe spinal Scoliosis, my spine is shaped like an odd S, it has degenerated over the years and I know have degenerative disc disease in my lower lumbar spine, as well as athritis starting in 3 different spots, where the curve is most severe.

I tried Gabapentin, which is the generic version of Neurontin, as drug of this same class and it did not help me.

My situation was slightly different though, as when I first started using it, I did get some benefit, but once I had been on it for a couple of months, it suddenly stopped having any effect on me and no matter how much we increased the dosage, it wouldn't do anything.

So we finally exhausted all other options and I had to go on narcotic pain management.

Sorry, I know this is long. LOL! But give it a month and then if you feel no help from it, talk to your doctor. You can try higher doses or other drugs.

Some people get very good results from these drugs and some don't, like I said it depends on your body and what exactly is causing your pain problems.

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