Need a good alternative to Lyrica

Hello. So sorry to hear what you are gooing through.

I was taking Lyrica for depression and anxiety so in my case the side effect outweighed the advantages. I did not put on wight at all but i was not able to eat properly.

I am now on low dose amitriptyline but very worried about what you said with your eye sight. perhaps there is something else but perhaps no drug has been invented that does not have side effects.

I have tried natural rememdies but they do not work for me.

Please do not worry about about your eyesight being affected by taking Amitriptyline. I have been assured that my case of sudden onset Glaucoma is extremely rare, so much so that my Consultant (who was in his late 50's/early 60's) had only ever seen one other case in his whole career. It is to do with my eye shape and narrow drainage channels and although Amitrip was the trigger it would take someone with very similar eyes to mine to suffer the same outcome. I am so sorry to have worried you or anyone else who read my post - it was not my intention at all. The hard part is that I was on Amitrip for only 3 weeks and it had started to work on my terrible sciatic nerve pain. So please continue to take this as your GP has instructed you to do and give it a chance to help you. I hope very much that it will be to your advantage and you start to feel better soon.

Very many thanks for taking the time to write again. i will stick with it. There are less side effects than Lyrica and i searched the web and on the whole the comments are very much more favourable. Just feel rather tired on it but am sure that will pass

Thanks again.

My pleasure and certainly hope you are on the way to better health. Feeling tired and sudden tiredness (as in eyelids gettig heavy with no warning) seems to be a side effect of these sorts of meds. Still happens with me 3 months in on Pregab. I don't mind that as much as the weight gain but perhaps I just have to ignore the hunger cravings when I know I wouldn't normally want to eat at that time. Hard!! Be well

Thank you elizabeth85938, I am sorry you have all those other medical problems, Lyrica has helped my anxiety 100% but the weight is awful, along with terrible passing wind  and sometimes I feel I haven't control of my eyes. I have eased off taking my night time Lyrica hoping this would help, but it hasn't. I will look into Amitriptyline and Ggabapenten. I hope someone can come up with a weight solving tablet soon.

Oh how well I know these side effects Minnimoo - but the alternative is worse for me as that sciatic pain crippled me. When I cough or sneeze I still feel the nerve tugging and just know the pain will come back if I come off Lyrica. So I am caught between a rock and a hard place! I suddenly get what I call heavy eyelids and they close without my permission - I really cannot stop them. Sometimes I get blurry sight as well. If I could take Amitrip I would but obviously I can never risk that again. Gabapenten and Pregabalin are of the same 'family' of meds so maybe weight gain applies to both - perhaps someone knows who has been on Gabapenten can post a view on this. I guess it is common sense that if a drug takes 6 weeks or so just to get into the system to do their job, it would take the same amount of time to come off them. Perhaps your GP could cut your morning and evening dose down to see if you still fare well on a lower amount but will it stop the above mentioned side effects (which can be embarrassing I know)? So many questions and very few medical answers! Ask your GP if you could try to cut down and out on Lyrica to try Amitriptyline instead as I believe it is helpful with anxiety. Here's to a pill that helps us lose weight properly rather than make a fortune for the drug giants who peddle these things in the media. Let us know how you progress please.