Misc Lyrica Long Term Mental Effects (feeling dumber)

[Volcano]

when was the last time you took it prev to this 900mg dose?

i got put on klonopin today. i put on 13lbs in one month from lyrica. i was like FUCK THIS. and i couldnt even form sentences. this is from just 150mg a day. plus if i ever got my girlfriend pregnant our kids would have birth defects. read the literature!

i would still like to use it about once a week out of the month to prevent developing tolerance to klonopin though.

I'm on Klonopin too instead of Lyrica. I, too couldn't tolerate the cognitive impairment that persisted throughout the treatment.

Neuralgic pain?

 

[_Morpheus_]

Pregablin is a CNS depressant. Any depressing side-effects should surpass after the drug is active. I have never heard of a patient having "Lyrica stupidity", so I would assume something else could be causing this.

 

[villian]

Pregablin is a CNS depressant. Any depressing side-effects should surpass after the drug is active. I have never heard of a patient having "Lyrica stupidity", so I would assume something else could be causing this.

This is a common and well known side effect so maybe you should refresh yourself on the literature.

 

[Drench]

Pregabalin definitely makes me a bit dumb/slow, I often can't think of a word or two which I which frustrates me. In general it messes up my hand/eye coordination and I generally seem a bit 'wasted' to the people around me (eyes a bit stoned, walking against door frames etc).

It doesn't effect me too badly though, and if I really think hard the word will often comes to me. It does make me tired a fair bit but I think I've just got used to it tbh.

 

[TheTwighlight]

Pregabalin & Gabapentin both have the effect on me, but I consider gabapentin less focused and outright euphoric than pregabalin. Let me say that Lyrica and Ultram together work incredibly for pain but they together have their side effects. I don't care when I'm on them, though.

 

[Pegasus]

Any depressing side-effects should surpass after the drug is active.

What does this mean?

 

[Drench]

What does this mean?

I think he's trying to say that any negative side effects should stop/disappear when the drug is out of your system

 

[hydrocondor]

Just wondering if anyone has experience with phenibut. I found some at the local health food store. Does it have the same dumbing down effects of lyrica and gabapentin? People say it's like a benzo, which I only have occasionally.

 

[tippin666]

http://www.wellnessresources.com/fr..._are_a_death_sentence_for_new_brain_synapses/

Relevant.

 

[BlueberryfishY]

I have been using lyrica about once or twice each weekend, and it seems like I feel much mentally slower. I have trouble recalling names and facts, and I have alot of trouble solving mathematical equations.

Does anyone else have this experience? I'd love to hear suggestions and tips in regard to "lyrica stupidity"

-Hydrocondor

Lyrica and Gabapentin does effect the memory and train of thought pretty harshly, after taking the latter i sometimes find myself looking for things i just saw 20 seconds ago.

 

[caizar]

Will lyrica work with phenibut or are they similar?

 

[Vaya]

The cognitive deficits in attention, motivation, vocabulary retrieval, sentence construction, reaction time, long- and short-term memory recall and, more recently, deficits in the physical act of speech production have made pregabalin absolutely not worth it.

And yet, despite all of these despondent adverse reactions, I find myself unwilling/unable to convince myself to stop taking the shit. Why?

I hadn't read through this particular thread in about a month and, in returning to it, was surprised to see that so many members of BL sound like they are in similar situations. Sans pregabalin, my vocabulary is tremendous. My IQ is in the upper quotient. My linguistic and articulatory skills in speech are comprehensive and highly reactionary. I read at a scholarly/research level. My emotions are solid, and my ability to empathize is so on-point that it borderlines being a fault, rather than a virtue. The bottom line is this: I consider myself to be quite an intelligent person all around, and pregabalin has severely compromised the foundation of who I am.

Every single item listed above has been adversely affected, to a significant degree, after six months of taking Lyrica every day. Whereas before I could hurdle cognitive obstacles with ease, I find myself trudging through psychic quicksand in order to achieve even the simplest of mental manipulations.

If I had to design a neurologic study using fMRI technology to study why this is, I would focus on the frontal and posterior regions of the brain's left hemisphere, specifically BA 44,45 (for speech production) and BA 39 (for speech comprehension), as well as hippocampal hyperpolarization - which would explain the prominent deficits in memory storage, encoding and retrieval. It makes me feel so outright *stupid* that I feel I might be capable of empathizing with moderate TBI patients' loss of cognition. And that's *really* saying something, as I've never sustained a traumatic brain injury of any clinical importance.

Two things I learned from my psychiatrist when I brought this issue to the table point-blank that I think some people might be wondering as well:
1.) Cognitive deficits, resulting from pregabalin use, are dosage-dependant. The less Lyrica one ingests on a regular basis, the less likely one's consciousness will be interrupted.
2.) Cognitive deficits, resulting from pregabalin use, are NOT permanent. If they were, I would liken Lyrica's safety profile to that of aerosol inhalants.

Despite all the trouble it's causing me... I will be honest with all of you. I need to vent this: I really, really do not want to discontinue pregabalin. There may be many reasons for this, but of the few I think I understand, relief from pain and anxiety are two of the forerunners for why I have not dumped my bottle into the toilet before dropping a perpendicular on the damn things. Of the other reasons - well, I haven't gotten a handle on why I may be feeling the way I do about discontinuing the treatment. I'm prescribed it in the United States off-label for GAD, but have Valium too. They are two different types of anxiety relief for me, which is why I can concomitantly administer them.

Could the aspects of my Lyrica "addiction" (and I'm about ready to call it that) be related to something else as well?
Most importantly, can anyone who may, after reading this post, consider themselves like-minded in this regard, offer some words of encouragement, advice, discovery, experience?

Why would I continue to take a medication whose negative "side effects" comprise 80% of the actual primary effects, whereas ~20% of the actual effect of the medication *might* be considered beneficial? It makes me feel as though I've lost the ability to judge reality properly; I know what it is to be addicted to methamphetamine, diacetylmorphine, oxymorphone, cocaine HCl - fuck, you name it. I know what pangs addiction leaves me with. Thus, Lyrica either occupies a different ballpark of addiction that I am unfamiliar with or, after six months, I have simply lost the ability to discern what is from what isn't.

Fuck man, who am I.
I sometimes find myself feeling like a multiple-stroke victim - when asked to recall something as simple as whether or not I had fucking breakfast that day.
For all that it's worth, I take between 450 and 600mg each day.

Much love, Bluelight. I've been away for a little while.

~ vaya

 

[Vaya]

http://www.wellnessresources.com/fr..._are_a_death_sentence_for_new_brain_synapses/

Relevant.

Relevant? Perhaps, but not a good article by any stretch, and not nearly scientific enough to be believable. Consider:

Browsing the rest of the website will find you discovering weight-loss advertisements and a general lack of credibility to the content. Articles with dramatic titles like "Neurontin and Lyrica are a death sentence..." rarely provide any citations for the claims they make, and this article is no different.

"However, such uses can no longer be justified because the actual mechanism of the drugs is finally understood and they are creating a significant long-term reduction in nerve health."

What mechanism of action is that? Calcium channel flow reduction resulting in hyperpolarized, and thus less excitable, nerve cells? Or is it the result of more contemporary research? Irregardless of which it is that they omitted, the article still does not cite scientific evidence to explain why pregabalin's "actual mechanism" (which they didn't bother to define) would have any bearing on the "health" of nerve cells at all. For instance, in this context, define "health"? Is that the velocity with which it conducts its signal? is it the strength of axonal growth, re/generative abilities, or myelin integrity that determines the "health" of a nerve cell?

"The researchers in the above study try to downplay the serious nature of the drugs by saying “adult neurons don’t form many new synapses.” That is simply not true. The new science is showing that brain health during aging relies on the formation of new synapses."

I really haven't heard much speculation on the growth of new synapses in adult brains. "New synapses" could only form when a brand new nerve cell generates amongst the cluster of older ones, as a 'synapse' is the space between two separate nerve cells. And new nerve cells in adult brains don't occur very often - the most current research restricts neuronal growth in adult brains to very localized regions of the prefrontal cortex, which means that the researchers the article's author attempts to discredit *are* right. If new synapses form only when new nerve cells appear - an uncommon, unpredictable occurrence - then adult neurons certainly don't form many new synapses.

It's also very heavily biased against the pharmaceutical companies, being that the website claims to sell the "world's best nutritional supplements since 1985," so it makes perfect sense they want to discredit the safety of prescription medications. It is interesting, though, that they happened to target Lyrica and Neurontin with this one.

But. Sorry to go off. It irritates me when some shit-for-brains writer with a hidden agenda presents, as facts, moronic and unsubstantiated claims to the public.

But you were right - it was relevant.

~ vaya

 

[Drench]

Vaya, I agree with almost everything in your top post in this thread. I have also been comparing myself to people who operate on a lower mental level, especially the elderly and I'm only 22!

I have the same feeling that you have, although I detest the negative cognitive/mental effects the pills have on me, I continue to take them for the superb anxiety relief as well as the confidence and...well to be honest, for what I consider to be a rather enjoyable albeit addictive high.

I do not have a prescription for them although I have been self medicating for over a year after stopping multiple other drugs and suffering bad anxiety and lack of confidence.

About 2 months ago I decided it was time to sort myself out, although I have 2 reliable sources I can't keep taking them and I want my smarter self back!

At the worst point in my 'Pregabalin addiction' I had around 4oz/100g of pure powder and I was chucking 3-4g down my neck each day! I'm using 75mg capsules now.

I've managed to half my dose from 1700mg to 850mg, then again to 375mg which is where I'm at now. Happily, neither reduction gave me any negative effects. I'm looking to go to 225mg next, then 150mg, 75mg and then stop

Infact writing this has inspired me to go down to 225mg tomorrow morning!

There's something that I don't think I mentioned, I must have gained between 2 and 3 stone in the time I have been taking them, that's a lot!

If you have to take these for epilepsy or another serious problem then carry on, but if you are taking them recreationally or for anxiety then beware, you might get hooked.

Regarding my anxiety problems, I'm currently on a Valium taper (down to 5mg for 40mg) and I have mostly stopped weed and other drugs and decided in my case it would be better to sort my anxiety out WITHOUT medication (something that might be a bit alien to you American members)

Good luck to anyone else having trouble with these, feel free to PM me.

 

[Jackinbox]

I guess I can say I'm fine on it up to 150 mg lyrica 2 times/day. I tried up to 300 mg in the morning and I would really feel so relax and a bit dumb. Even at 150 mg, it's possible that there is some cognitive effect on me (hard to compare since I'm not working anymore (programmer) since I started using Lyrica. Combined with dexedrine lyrica is really nice.

I found out that the effect of Lyrica can be as long as 20 hours compared to Neurontin 4 hours. The neurontin dosage that give me the same relaxation/anti-anxiety effect as Lyrica will come with more cognitive impairment. On the other hand, Neurontin as a little mood brighting effect and help me to be more social and talk more fluently. Lyrica doesn't provide that. That's why sometimes I take some Neurontin over my Lyrica before a social event (or with weed).

 

[TheTwighlight]

I take 450mg a day, and usually by nighttime I cannot remember anything I did up to around 3 or 4pm. It's fucked. I forget what I'm talking about mid-sentence. I forget things other people tell me while I'm on the phone with them, then ask them the same question I already did.

Yeah, pregabalin has a serious effect on short-term memory. I also take 3,600mg gabapentin a day.

If the benefits and overall feeling from the drug weren't superb...well, I wouldn't be taking it. As it is, though...it's a good friend.

 

[hydrocondor]

Since the original post, I have all but stopped my Lyrica consumption, taking it at most once a month and at a really low dose. Since stopping, I have had a much clearer mind, and feel much more confident in conversations, since I'm not forgetting things left and right anymore. Even though I enjoy the buzz lyrica offers, I don't think its worth it to lose my thinking ability over it.

 

[Justin Sane 53]

It is actually listed as one of the side effects. I remember reading that for most it goes away after a certain amount of time, but for some it never does.

 

[L0cky]

the side effects get worse ,
the first few months i almost had zero negative side effects or maybe i ignored them.

it took about a year before the most negative side effects got the most of me .
your memory get worse every day even though you wont notice it at first.
switching words in sentences or even say totally different things then what you are planning.
i couldnt remember things i yust finished a few seconds ago, confused all the time.
even mistaking people for others.

I wont be surprised if this drugs ends up illegal because of the damage it does in long term.

It helps tons with pain and the high is amazing , i miss the endless energy and motivation but i cant handle feeling like someone with alzheimer on a age of 31.

 

[RobGrant]

Late post. I was taking 100 MG Lyrica 3 times a day and it made me stupid. My wife couldn't believe that way I acted. Now on 75 MG twice a day and its manageable. Still think it effects me.