Hey
@opiofr3k
There's nothing dangerous involved here if we're talking about a person in normal health without other preexisting conditions. I'm a little confused, so help me out with some of the details if you could.
You're going to start taking
Sertraline (Zoloft) and begin tapering off of
Pregabalin (Lyrica)?
First, there's no specific reason why someone would need to taper off of the latter just to be on the former. There aren't any serious, specific contraindications between the two and I'd venture to say there are tons of people out there on both
SSRI and Gabapentinoid therapy. There is a condition known as
Serotonin Syndrome that you will encounter if you do a little bit of reading. Basically, it's a phenomenon, a medical emergency that arises from an imbalance of Serotonin. It's serious, but it's also very difficult to predict or plan for. There are people taking 5 different antidepressants and other drugs who will never experience Serotonin Syndrome and there are people like you who could experience Serotonin Syndrome from a comparatively minor combination.
The thing is, you just have to be prepared in all cases and listen to your body. Serotonin Syndrome is not something that you're likely to be on the fence in terms of diagnosing. It's often a pretty serious and undeniable issue. Like I said, it's difficult to plan for, but anyone who is being mindful should be able to identify the problem and alert help.
If you're asking about withdrawal symptoms, we can help with that too. It sounds like you have some experience in reducing Gabapentinoids without too much issue. That's how withdrawal is. For some, it's a much more difficult process than others. You sound like you've been able to handle it in the past, so I figure you can likely handle it now.
I always recommend going as slow as possible. There is rarely a good reason for attempting a rapid taper. Pregabalin typically comes in capsules. I assume yours are in this form. It's fairly easy to dump the powder out and judge by eye smaller increments. I think most people could pretty easily spill a capsule out and eyeball it into quarters. This gives you a little more wiggle room in terms of how fast you reduce. I would recommend making the reduction over the course of two weeks to a month if that's possible, with the reductions in dosage more or less being linear i.e. every day will consist of a dosage 1/30th smaller than the starting dose going each day.
I typically experience
anxiety, perspiration, insomnia and nausea when I am withdrawing from Gabapentinoids. I've withdrawn from many different drugs and each has its own character and trials. Gabapentinoids are very "heady", there is a lot of racing thoughts, anxiety and so on. One of the signature symptoms of Gabapentinoid withdrawal is the extreme temperature control issues. Withdrawal of any kind is going to fuck with your internal thermostat somehow, but Gabapentinoids will take me from on fire hot, sweating to ice cold in seconds. If you need to work or be around people, preparing for the likelihood of being extremely sweaty throughout the day can be helpful. For me, this means bringing an extra shirt or at least a towel.
Otherwise, I think your process should be manageable. Let us know if you have any questions.
only half-serious here, but the supply chain stuff when Covid happened made me more paranoid)
