Tapering off Lyrica gave me panic, nausea, extreme anxiety

HI I am brand new on this site and a lousy typer so bear with me please. Iam on 120mg. of morphine and 600mg. of lyrica for neuropothy pain. have lost about half of my theeth so far but the meds I was on for anxiety are no longer needed. I could use someone who can spell and type for me ha ha. BEWARE of the benzos!! getting off of them is terrible. I could spend all day just telling you how bad they are! If you need pain meds you don't have much choice. God bless and i will be praying for you

@chipper
Having been in Kyrica for four years I lost 5 teeth! I am on my last week of coming off 50mg and it sure ha# done a number on me, what’s your tooth loss from?

Has anyone tried medical marijuana.

Lyrica

@cdcc

I have tried medical marijuana for pain, and it does work for me. However, it is always so strong that I end up stoned. I don't like being high so I don't use it. My husband uses it for his back and leg pain and anxiety. I found that my anxiety increased with marijuana because the lowest amount made me so high that I got nervous about it. There are probably less powerful kinds of marijuana available, you just have to ask your vendor what they are and try them.

The thing that helped me most was CBD Living Water (brand name) which is just like drinking bottled water. CBD is the part of the marijuana plant that doesn't make you high. It worked great for the anxiety I had while withdrawing from Tramadol. I haven't had that level of anxiety since then, but I was having muscle tremors again in my thighs last evening and I was wishing for the CBD water. I got through it without the help of the CBD last night. I think I will keep a bottle of the water around for the future though. When I used it, I just lost the anxiety and muscle tremors I was feeling and became relaxed. I think it may have helped with minor pain as well, but I mostly remember the calming effect it had. The CBD water is immediately available to your body, whereas the CBD tincture take as long as 2+ hours to have effect. The CBD Living Water costs $5.00 per 2 serving bottle. Not cheap, but well worth it in my opinion.

I was on Gabapentin, which is the generic med for Neurontin, of which Lyrica is the new formulation so the pharmaceutical company could make more money after the generic med came out in my opinion. I think, personally, that these are very bad medications that for me caused more harm than good. I'm so happy to hear you have gotten off the Lyrica. I definitely recommend trying CBD as an alternative for anxiety. Ativan is also addictive, although I never had an addiction to it when it and Lorazepam, the generic version, were prescribed for me for panic attacks.

The thing that helped me most with my anxiety/panic attacks was Citalopram, an antidepressant I began about 6 years ago. I am so happy to be free of all thoses fears, which stopped after the antidepressant. You can have genetic testing that will show you and your doctor which antidepressants will work for you before you take them. You can also do testing for other drugs as well, but I don't know which ones. It took me a few weeks to get used to the Citalopram, and I started at 1/2 the dose. After 6 months I was titrated to the full 40 mg dose. The only time I had a problem with anxiety since was during withdrawl from the Tramadol, a synthetic opiate.

Google, "genetic drug testing", or go directly to the Mayo Clinic site and search there for information.

By the way, if Lyrica has taken your teeth, have you had a bone scan to determine if it's caused osteoporosis? I would be concerned about that and want to check.

Best of luck in finding relief for your pain.

Warm regards,
Gail B
Volunteer Mentor

Welcome to my world! Have been on Lyrica for about 5+ years and have lost so many teeth! Have 7 dental implants now and am actually getting my 4 tooth bridge next !month! But have tapered off the Lyrica and tried gabapentin and it does not work as well as the Lyrica at all! But !y pain is so bad even with it I can't imagine life without it! Sucks being toothless us!

Hello, @paulagershoony. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. That would distress me, too, if I were losing teeth due to a medication. So sorry to hear about that.

I wanted to mention that you might be interested in following a couple of the Connect groups. If you follow the links below, you will see a gray-blue banner at the top with a picture. At the lower right of that banner, you will see "+Follow." If you click on that, you will be following that group and can keep up on what members post on that topic.

- Chronic Pain, http://mayocl.in/2cBiRN5

- Neuropathy, http://mayocl.in/2FoWSKN

@cdcc, I don't know if I am repeating something that you already know, but the dry mouth caused by Lyrica is the reason for your teeth falling out, or at least a major factor. I am diabetic which causes overall dryness and take a couple of other meds that also cause dry mouth. The result is that I have far more crowns/bridges than I do my own teeth. I have tried biotine(sp?) at the urging of my dentist, but if I use it as much as recommended I end up with a burning tongue and still have an incredibly dry mouth. I believe it is @jimhd who uses the biotine and seems to get pretty good results from it's use. Anyway, if you are getting off Lyrica, maybe that problem will cease as well. Good luck!

@jimhd, please don't tell my wife that incoherency is a reason to be in the hospital; I would be forever confined! jk

I wish you luck. I am trying to stop it now. Your post has me nervous to do that.