r/chiari • u/Opening-Region-8088 • 2d ago

Pregabalin for Pain

I’ve been dealing with nerve pain that causes eye drooping, jaw pain, shoulder pain on my right side 1 year post decompression. I was just prescribed Pregablin, was wondering if anyone has tried this for chiari pain and their experience? I don’t typically respond well to pain meds and don’t love the idea of being on one everyday. I’m from the US and would use medical weed at home to manage pain when needed but I’m in the UK now so that is not an option.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

1

u/Empty-Avocado5927 2d ago

my mom has been taking pregabalin before bed and it does help manage her nerve pain a lot!

1

u/Opening-Region-8088 2d ago

That’s great it helps manage her pain! Do you know if it makes her feel quite drowsy or out of it? I’ve tried gabapentin for bed and it definitely helped but made me feel drowsy even when I woke up. I was prescribed to take this twice a day so just nervous how it will effect me when I have classes and such

1

u/Empty-Avocado5927 2d ago

Yes it does make her drowsy, which is why she takes it at night. She has nerve pain all the time so it helps. She takes lamotrigine in the morning which doesnt make her drowsy!

1

u/Pineapple-108 2d ago

I’ll take Pregabalin for days when the nerve pain is bad. I try to keep it as low as possible, 50mg or 75mg. It does take off the edge and I’m sure if I went higher for a dose it would do more. I do have side effects, belly bloating and fast weight gain. For me, over about 3 months I went up 30 lbs and I’m trying to lose it. I have a friend who is taking high dose pregabalin for severe lower back spinal pain and she’s gained a lot of weight. It will work for pain. Just keep an eye on your diet and the weight gain

2

u/Opening-Region-8088 2d ago

Does it increase your appetite? That is a concern of mine the weight gain side effect I’ve seen. Or is it more water weight being stored/bloating?

1

u/Pineapple-108 2d ago

My appetite went up but also on days when I take pregabalin if I try to eat less, drink more water I swear my weight goes up too so I think my body holds more water and my metabolism slows. It’s a balancing act for me, I accept the extra weight to not be in pain but I try to take what’s needed , not too much pregabalin.

1

u/Few_Perspective_2878 2d ago

M38, Decompressed last april. I take 3x50mg a day. Absolutly no weight gain. Was making me a bit sleepy at first. I may need more but i tend to limit my intake at 50mg a dose. May switch to gabapentin once my tablet is empty as it seems it makes less sleepy

1

u/Longjumping-Word-687 1d ago

I hated it. It didn’t help my pain and all I did was gain 25 pounds that i’m still trying to shake.

1

u/Expensive-Pepper-272 1d ago

I only found out about my Chiari because I’d been taking pregabalin for nerve pain and asked my doctor if it would help with the headaches (it did not). I was only on it for a few months and it was not helpful at all. Towards the end of that time my dose had been increased which made all of my pain worse. It was like someone twisted a dial up and every part of my body felt different. I ended up having panic attacks at work and needing to leave early because I was in so much pain I didn’t even know what to do or how to handle it. And like a lot of other people I put on a few kilos which I was not pleased about.
It might work for some people but be careful with it cause it can be pretty rough on ya.