Oh stop believing that phizer bollocks, it's almost as if you work for them.
I took lyrica for 6 months. It took me a year to come off it. Know why? I had seizures. I lost my mind. I couldn't even get out of bed. I'm not the first person to report that either, look at all the hundreds flocking all over the Internet for advice over "why they feel bad after stopping lyrica". It's not me that's miseducated on this drug, it's you. Fine, you can believe what the mainstream studies show you all sponsored by Pfizer™, and ignore the host of people explaining that they're suffering terribly at the hands of this drug - that's also fine.
It's one of the most addictive drugs out there. Fine, in fancy medical jargon, it's highly prone for dependency forming.
Your whole amphetamine thing is wrong. Because aspirin does not increase GABA levels in the brain. Lyrica does, if we're going by your 2006 Pfizer™ Study, that study is absolutely ridiculous. I've seen them change what they say lyrica does about 4 times in the past 8 years.
How long have you been taking it for? If you have that is. Please, show me how unaddicitive it is, and stop it for 2 weeks- no I'll make it easier 1. You'll cave in after 3-4 days max. You'll start to notice all these stranges things happening around you- you won't be able to put your finger on it because you'll think ah well maybe I just didn't sleep right (which you won't, because you're no longer taking pregabalin), and then you'll have to admit it.
Oh yeah maybe I phrased what I meant wrong, probably autocorrect as I have my phone, but I mean that pregabalin causes glutamate to turn over in the brain to GABA-AB, as melkhorghost said.
I'll find the studies. Your 2006 study from phizer is horribly inaccurate - yet it's the one we all see isn't it? Maybe because they paid the FDA to approve it from that?
And your sedative thing? I mean what? That made me spit out my morning milk laughing. Just because other sedatives can do the same doesn't mean that pregabalin should be listed as bad because other sedatives can cause the same effects? WHAT?! HAH
By the way I mean no disrespect to you by this post, but please, don't just believe what the company lies to you about. Through that study pregabalin actually effects nothing apart from calcium channels. It affects absolutely no neurotransmitters whatsoever. Yet how come people report all sorts of effects, ranging from euphoria to intense hallucinations while on the drug? If calcium channel blockers were so amazing, surely they'd be candidates of abuse? What class does it belong to then? Phenylalkylamine? Dihydropyridine? Benzothiazepines?
"Lyrica is one of four drugs which a subsidiary of Pfizer in 2009 pleaded guilty to misbranding "with the intent to defraud or mislead". Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion) in settlement, and entered a corporate integrity agreement. Pfizer illegally promoted the drugs and caused false claims to be submitted to government healthcare programs for uses that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)." - says it all really.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11709066
Upregulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter expression: role of alkylated gamma-aminobutyric acid derivatives.
Pregabalin [(S)-(+)-3-isobutylgaba] and gabapentin [1-(aminomethyl)cyclohexane acetic acid] are gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) derivatives that are effective in the treatment of behavioural disorders, convulsions, epilepsy and hyperalgesia. The mechanisms underlying the diverse actions of these compounds in the brain have not been well elucidated. To test the hypothesis that these compounds exert some of their effects on GABAergic systems in the brain, we examined their role in regulating the rat brain GABA transporter GAT1, a plasma membrane protein involved in regulating synaptic transmitter levels. Prolonged incubation of hippocampal cultures, which endogenously express GAT1, with gabapentin and pregabalin caused a 2-fold increase in subsequent GABA uptake, which was concentration- and time-dependent. This increase in uptake was correlated with a redistribution of GAT1 protein from intracellular locations to the plasma membrane. Further experiments also suggested that the signal transduction cascade that modulates pregabalin-mediated GAT1 redistribution may involve pathways activated by specific GAT1 substrates and antagonists but does not involve protein kinase C and tyrosine kinases, two other pathways known to regulate GAT1 redistribution. These data suggest that pregabalin and gabapentin may exert some of their actions in the brain by altering GABAergic signalling.
Another thing I was trying to get across is that pregabalin makes any GABA agonist that you've taken stronger. Baclofen is a potent GABA-b receptor agonist. Combine it with something that will potentiate it strongly=????
And as for saying that this drug is safe.... You're in way over your head with that statement. A study performed stated that pregabalin and gabapentin essentially STOPPED the production of neurons in the brain, and that was one of the underlying mechanisms of action of it. Does that sound safe to you?
