My dh has rapidly gone downhill. Running into walls and confusion. I was looking for drug interactions and found that Lyrica, his new drug causes drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, diffculty concentrating, unsteadiness and fatigue. We called the neuro and moved his appt. up because of this. Now I wonder if this new behavior could be side effects of Lyrica. It is given for pain because of nerve damage. It is the first thing he has had that relieves the pain and he doesn't want to stop taking it. We had a nice talk and I told him it is time to start telling his buddies at the golf course that he is taking meds that make him confused and dizzy. That is a good way for them to know something is wrong, but not have to give out the whole story. I will ask the Dr. when we go. Has anyone taken Lyrica and had any problems?
Not familiar with Lyrica, but if ther new symptoms started since starting the Lyrica, that's a good clue. There are other pain meds. Letting others know what's happening can be a good stress reducer too, which can also lessen pain.
One day at a time, my DH took Lyrica for several months for back pain. He had no side effects from it but it didn't seem to help much either. Like carosi said, there are lots of pain meds. If Lyrica caused problems, I would suggest to the doctor that he try something else. My DH is on Lodine and hydrocodone. He has very bad arthritis and spinal stenosis so he's still in pain but the medicine does dull it somewhat.
Adverse Reactions Most Commonly Leading to Discontinuation in All Premarketing Controlled Clinical Studies In premarketing controlled trials of all populations combined, 14% of patients treated with LYRICA and 7% of patients treated with placebo discontinued prematurely due to adverse reactions. In the LYRICA treatment group, the adverse reactions most frequently leading to discontinuation were dizziness (4%) and somnolence (3%). In the placebo group, 1% of patients withdrew due to dizziness and < 1% withdrew due to somnolence. Other adverse reactions that led to discontinuation from controlled trials more frequently in the LYRICA group compared to the placebo group were ataxia, confusion, asthenia, thinking abnormal, blurred vision, incoordination, and peripheral edema (1% each).
Most Common Adverse Reactions in All Premarketing Controlled Clinical Studies In premarketing controlled trials of all patient populations combined, dizziness, somnolence, dry mouth, edema, blurred vision, weight gain, and "thinking abnormal" (primarily difficulty with concentration/attention) were more commonly reported by subjects treated with LYRICA than by subjects treated with placebo (≥ 5% and twice the rate of that seen in placebo).