Schedule 5 (C-V) drugs are over the counter drugs like Tylenol, Advil and multi-vitamins. Lyrica is a Schedule 4 (C-IV), which is what Ambien, Lipitor, Zoloft, Allegra, Neurontin and Nasonex are, along with most muscle relaxers, ALL blood pressure medications and diabetes meds and thousands of other meds. C-III are the light or synthetic narcotics such as Vicodin, Lortab, Tylenol with codeine, tramadol and Percocet. C-III drugs are usually synthetic opioids, but not always and they can be called in over the phone provided the patient has at least one paper prescription for the drug on file at the pharmacy. C-II drugs are Oxycontin, morphine, methadone and others that are plant opioid based. C-II drugs must ALWAYS be filled with an actual written prescription. These drugs cannot have refills on them and they cannot be prescribed over the phone, but you can do it with a fax machine as long as you get the original to the pharmacy within 72 hours. C-I drugs are the illegals like heroin, cocaine, LSD and meth.

A lot of people confuse the definitions of addicted and clinically dependent. If you're using a drug according to the directions, you are not addicted. You may be clinically dependent, but you're not addicted. Addiction is a mental thing, not a physical one, where your brain says your body MUST have it, especially if you know you don't need. Clinical, or physical, dependency is what most people actually deal with. It's VERY different from addiction. You can have withdrawal symptoms with clinical dependency, but they won't kill you like addiction withdrawal symptoms can.

Go ahead and try it. If you're going to have bad side effects from it that are too much for you to handle, you'll probably know within a matter of days. While the list of side effects can be scary, that doesn't mean they're going to happen to you and that doesn't mean they're all related to actually taking Lyrica. The company is required to list every single thing that happens to the people taking it during the trial, even if that reaction only happens once. That's why so many drugs (include blood pressure and cholesterol meds) list cough, sneezing and runny nose as side effects. People in the trials come down with colds, and the company has to list it. If somebody in the study had a heart attack or stroke while taking it, even though it's probably not related to the drug, the company has to list it as a side effect. That's the law.

My mom has been taking Lyrica for several months now. The only side effect she's had is her feet swelling.