Posted on 06/21/2012 1:57:33 PM PDT by stillafreemind
Pfizer Inc.'s drug Lyrica has gotten FDA approval for use in treating nerve pain due to spinal injuries. Lyrica, a pain drug, is Pfizer's second-biggest selling drug. It is expected that this new approval will help Lyrica pass Lipitor, the company's largest-selling drug for reducing cholesterol.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.yahoo.com ...
I think of it as a blanket that you put over a irritable nerve or electric tape that you put over a wire that is sparking
It stops the "spark" from turning into seizures, but then, because it had less bad side effects than other seizure medicines, we started using it for shingles pain (herpes zoster, no relationship to herpes herpes). Then we started using it for our diabetics whose feet were numb but caused burning pain.
I haven't treated the bad neuropathic pains, but apparently it works for them too
the advantage is that different types of pain pills work for pain. Motrin/NSAIDS works for bone pain, but not for this type of pain.
A lot of these patients got addicted to narcotics in the past, because narcotics were the only thing that stopped the pain (and even then, the narcs didn't work very well)
the interesting thing about Lyrica is that it also seems to work for fibromyalgia.
I’m taking it for nerve pain *herniated disc/root nerve irritation/sciatica* I’m hoping once the dosage gets right that it will help alleviate some of my sciatica pain. However... it’s very expensive. If doc hadn’t given me the “co-pay card” that makes the co-pay a max of $25, I would have requested a cheaper medication.
“Pfizer Inc.’s drug Lyrica has gotten FDA approval for use in treating nerve pain due to spinal injuries. Lyrica, a pain drug, is Pfizer’s second-biggest selling drug. It is expected that this new approval will help Lyrica pass Lipitor, the company’s largest-selling drug for reducing cholesterol.”
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/lyrica-side-effects.html
“In clinical trials in patients with neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, 9% of patients treated with Lyrica and 4% of patients treated with placebo discontinued prematurely due to adverse reactions.”
9-4=5% 1 in 20 discontinued due to adverse reactions. Nice to see our FDA’s on the job.
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/08/janet-woodcock-miss-piñata-meets-clue-stick.html
And why would Dear Janet be so Drug Company friendly, since a Fifth of FDA’s budget comes directly from drug companies?
http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/default.htm
I have been taking it for diabetic neuropathy for two years.
Biggest problem is weight gain.
I’ve taken Lyrica before for nerve damage. Within a week, it had me feeling like I was drunk all the time. I could barely walk, my memory was shot and I was slurring my words. I don’t trust this or any other, as seen on TV, drugs since they’re so new to the market, they’re using people to further test their drug without telling the consumer like they did for Bextra during its follow up testing on huamans where they had to stop testing it after it had been approved since the incidents of heart attacks and strokes were way above the number you would expect from normal society and it’s banned to this day.
If you take this, keep an eye out for the symptoms I described. The doctor finally admitted that it was the drug causing all these weird symptoms and stopped me from taking it.
If they’re advertising drugs on TV, I would be leery as they seem to be using people who saw this drug on TV to ask their doctor for it and then they further test it. I would stick with drugs that have been around. Neurontin is another drug that does almost the same thing without most of Lyrica’s problems although it has issues of its own.
Then you best do a LOT of research before you or any one you know take it. It has a whopping 50% sided effect failure rate.
It is an anti-seizure drug, they broadened it for Fibromyalgia patients not to long ago. Hope you like your hair falling out, if you have ‘arthur’ your joints will hurt terribly and you will GAIN WEIGHT. These are just a few of the ‘nice’ side effects of this nasty drug. This is it’s older sister drug
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/gabapentin-side-effects.html
Go back a few pages to the blogs and see what the patients are saying...not pretty.
My experience with it was terrible pain, as was my son’s. 50mg dose.
Other folks tolerate the side effects. I can’t.
The gal that wrote the articles talks about some of the side effects her friend(s) have had with it.
But..if there is no other solution to the nerve pain from spinal injuries..anything would probably be welcomed.
I take Lyrica for nerve pain in my legs and hips. It enables me to sleep where before I was in awful pain and getting almost no sleep even though I take pain meds and Ambien. The constant hunger is the worst side effect for me. It has been a wonder drug as far as I am concerned.
“Lyrica is an older version of the anti seizure medicine Gabapentin,”
Just the opposite,gabapentin before pregabalin.
I’m glad it helps your pain.
I should add to my previous post that it sometimes works for nerve pain (sciatica) from disc problems too (when the disc irritates the nerve and the pain goes down the leg)...this is another “off label” use.
Usually the “treatment” for such pain when it doesn’t go away with physical therapy etc. is surgery, but we also have folks whose pain is caused by scar tissue after the surgery, or because the nerve was so damaged that the surgery, taking the pressure off of the nerve, didn’t help.
it also works for Tic Doloreaux, the terrible facial pain caused by an irritated nerve...
gabapentin works for many people and is generic so might be cheaper. It doesn’t work as well, and has to be taken a few times a day, but it is an alternative for some folks on a tight budget.
I had horrible unrelenting pain after a lung removal; diagnosed as post thoractotomy neuropathy. I thought I was doomed; truly wanted to die. Then the pain clinic started me on Lyrica; within a week the pain was better and my dose was gradually increased to reach maintenance level where I can tolerate the pain. I still get breakthrough electric charges throughout my body sometimes but it is sporadic. I do have lots of swelling in my feet and hands and have tried to taper the dose downward but I resigned myself that I probably will be on it for the long term. Very very thankful that it helps.
Lyrica is not a “new” drug, but a version of the older one, gabapentin (This is a correction of my previous post, where I said it was an older drug.) Gabapentin came out for seizures back in the early 1990’s, so it’s not a new drug family.
The neurologists knew that some seizure medicines such as tegretol worked for terrible nerve pain (tic doloreaux or neuropathic pain) so they tried gabapentin, and it worked for the pain, with fewer liver/blood side effects than tegretol...Lyrica is the newer version of this, with less sleepiness and you take fewer pills... However, the FDA never “approved” of using gabapentin, so we had to tell our patients this.
The sedation is dose related, so the answer is to start at a lower dose until your body gets used to it. I am sensitive to being sleepy with medicine: I can’t take an allergy pill if I plan to work or drive, for example.
However, I agree with you about advertising: it’s dangerous, and sells expensive medicine you might not need.
But before gabapentin and Lyrica, our patients with nerve damage often ended up addicted to narcotics, and the pain was so bad some killed themselves.
So like all medicines, it is good for many people, but not for everyone, alas...
Thanks for the info :) If I find I can’t tolerate the side effects (feet swelling and my vision is a tiny bit blurry) then I’ll ask to switch to that other one.
I sure hope it helps some. I took it for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue pain and aches. I had all the bad reactions and had to stop taking it. Even 3 years later I am fighting to get the weight off. I gained 25 pounds when taking it. Every one I know who has taken it has gained a lot of weight.
Another site on side effects, reported to Medwatch Jan 2004-Sept 2009
http://lamplightersoftware.com/dsm.php
put Lyrica in the search box
Pregabalin Reported By
Adverse Reaction Cases MD CN OT PH LW NR
Suicidal Ideations 135 57 54 27 3 0 28
Attempted Suicides 41 21 11 8 3 0 19
Completed Suicides 18 15 1 3 0 0 9
Deaths Not From Suicide 335 290 87 61 28 0 72
Homicidal Ideations 13 6 5 1 0 0 2
Homicides 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Hypomania/Mania 39 29 5 10 2 0 6
Heart Disease 350 250 62 60 32 1 72
Movement Disorders 1,283 567 467 193 100 5 377
Birth Defects 22 10 7 3 2 0 7
Premature Births 1 0 2 0 0 0 0
Prenatal/Neonatal Deaths 24 14 13 7 0 0 2
Hi: I just withdrew from Gabapentin after 10 years on it (2400Mg/day) due to kidney problems. It was/is a very unpleasant experience!!! Now, I’m wondering about Lyrica. Does it have the same potential for kidney problems (high creatinine) as gabapentin? Right now, I’m almost overwhelmed with pain/discomfort. Death would be welcome relief for some neuropathic pain sufferers.
I was also on Gabpentin. My doctor said it was designed as a drug for seizures but that it didn’t work any better than the anti-seizure meds they already had. They prescribed it for off label use and gave it to me.
I took it exactly as they said to do and nothing happened, good or bad so they took me off of it. I’ve still got some laying around.
I just tried to find it and can’t, I know I put it somewhere where it wouldn’t get lost but of course, it’s in a nice and cosy place... somewhere.
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