Lyrica for z-drug withdrawals?

[bunge]

hi, im tapering zopiclone atm and am getting a bit of rebound anxiety made worse by the fact I already suffer GAD\panic. Ive got alot of pregabalin lying around, would it help me with some of the WD effects? I know its not effective for sleep and Ive got mirtazapine for that which I take 45mg at night and have done for about 5/6 months. will the lyrica and mirtazapine be ok to take together, I would leave a few hours between dosing them. Thanks for any advice.

 

[valiumdone]

Lyrica and mirtazapine are not good to take together because it causes respiratory depression (you could stop breathing).

 

[pasha]

Pregabalin (lyrica) is very effective at curbing withdrawals from any GABAergics including z-drugs. Mixing pregabalin and mirtazapine is fine as pregabalin, tricyclics and tetracycyclics are commonly prescribed.

 

[bunge]

I checked to interactions myself and it just said moderate risk because of cns depression leading to respiratory depression but I regularly mix zopiclone and mirtazapine together. I would only be taking 50mg of pregabalin aswell in the evening bout 4 hours before the mirtazapine.

 

[laCster]

yesss!!! take the pregabalin!! i bet (only assuming) it will make your WD almost nonexistent . lyrica and remeron are definitely OK to take together. however, you will definitely have marked increased sedation, but nothing deadly. while they both produce somewhat heavy sedation, both lyrica and mirtazapine only slightly depress the CNS. in other words even though you will feel like you could fall asleep standing up, the combo is highly unlikely to cause you stop breathing. remeron's sedation comes from poweful H1 antagonism, and anti-histamines cause very very limited CNS depression. lyrica is a complex drug, not showing any affinity to NT receptors such a dopamine or serotonin, and only causes limited CNS depression.

i am talking out of my ass here, but IMO/IME codeine/ hydrocodone causes more CNS depression than either of the two. .you are perfectly safe to take them together, just dont drive!!!

your good, but i would only take the mirtazapine at night as it will definitey cause you to fall asleep. i.d take the lyrica throughtout the day fior anxiety, and remeron at niight to sleep. the thing about lyrica is that it lasts alll day for me . if i take some at 11am, i will still feel the effects at 10pm.

if i were you i would take 100-150mgs of lyrica - 3 times per day. and 15-30mg mirtazapine at night for sleep.

 

[bunge]

^
Cheers laCster, that thinking followed my own pretty much.lol after all ive got all this pregabalin lying around, might aswell make some use of it! I wouldnt take em both at the same time anyway, im fairly cautious before ive got experience with a new drug or combo. The lyrica is just to ease the anxiety abit so the mirtazapine can help me get some sleep. Appreciate the advice off all you guys, thanks for taking the time. My sympathies aswell to laCster, I see your still stuck on your phone for internet.lol :-D

 

[paranoid android]

Ive taken zopiclone along with mirtazpine (remeron) as i used to be on remeron years ago and used to take pregabalin when i could get sample packs of it. I am prescribed gabapentin which is much the same drug as pregabalin except with a much shitter and more complex oral bioavailability and it's much less potent then pregabalin. Lyrica like gabapentin does not actually cause much in the way of respiratory depression i don't think. Pregabalin would help for zopilclone withdrawal as it helps with benzodiazepine withdrawal. Zopiclone and other Z drugs act much like benzos except i have not seen people get nearly as severe withdrawal symptoms upon stopping z drugs. I have known people to use regularly high doses of zopiclone for years and not develop withdrawal symptoms much beyond severe rebound insomnia, anxiety, that feeling of impending doom that comes with withdrawal from all drugs that effect gaba. That is plenty bad enough though mind you and i wouldn't go cold turkey off daily long term use of zopiclone unless i was taking a benzodiazepine to stop the withdrawal symptoms.

Take the pregabalin a few times a day if you need it as it won't hurt you and keep the mirtazapine for when you need to sleep. I found mirtazapine to be fantastic for sleep but remember that remeron is actually more sedating at the lower doses then the higher doses. This is because at doses of below 30mg's mirtazapine mostly effects serotonin and is also a very potent H1 antagonist thus making it a very strong anti-histamine. This combination of receptor binding is also what causes the intense hunger you get from remeron as well. However at doses of 30mg's or over remeron starts to increase the level of norepinephrine in the brain which offsets the drowsiness because norepinephrine is a stimulating neurotransmitter. So 7.5-15mg's of mirtazapine is enough to take for sleep.

One word of caution i would give is that pregabalin can cause some rather nasty withdrawal symptoms after long term high dose use. It' feels sort of like a combo of benzo and opiate withdrawals for me. So only take the lyrica for as long as you need to help you with the anxiety, insomnia and such and such of zopiclone withdrawal.