I've been a chronic pain patient for 12 years. For most of that time my pain was managed by Klonopin (clonazepam) and several other drugs. Klonopin did a pretty good job, but I developed a tolerance to it. My pain management doctor ordered me to taper off of it, but didn't provide me with enough Klonopin to do it safely. I suffered a withdrawal seizure and developed Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome. Now I am dealing with not only chronic pain, unmedicated, but the debilitating symptoms of BWS.
Recently I was taking 2400 mg of Neurontin (gabapentin) daily, but I didn't really know if it was providing me any benefit or not. My neurologist was concerned about the high dosage, so he had me taper down to 900 mg daily. I got much worse, so apparently the Neurontin was doing more than I realized.
I reported this to my neurologist and asked if Lyrica (pregabalin) might not be a better alternative. My reasoning was that Lyrica, which is from the same family as Neurontin, is far more bioavailable, so more benefit can be achieved with substantially less milligrams per dose. He immediately nixed this idea, informing me that Lyrica was a Class 2 controlled substance and not appropriate for me due to my history with Klonopin. (Yes, I read above where it says Lyrica is a Class 5, not a Class 2.)
So I got online and read what I could find about the addictive potential of Lyrica. What I found out was this: Because Neurontin's FDA approval wasn't for pain control, it wasn't subject to the same scrutiny that Lyrica received. In all liklihood, Lyrica is no more (or no less) addictive than Neurontin.
Should I continue to try to make a case for Lyrica to my doctor? Should I be worried about the Neurontin? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Additional note: I can't tolerate Gabitril (tiagabine), a drug from the same family as Lyrica and Neurontin.
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