Hello! 
I had mvd performed in March 2017 and prior to that was on 450mg of lyrica a day (225 2x a day) and 800mg carbamazepine a day (400 2x a day).
Following surgery I was instructed to reduce one 75mg pill of lyrica a week.
I am down 4 lyrica pills thus (YaY 
) far and am wondering if anyone has had withdrawal and/or side effects coming off their medication.
Thank you
Hi Mjjm,
Hope your MVD went well and you are pain free as a result!
I underwent MVD in December last year and have just finished weaning myself off Effexor, Lamotrigine and Topamax.
Before my MVD, I also tried some other anticonvulsants - without any success - including Lyrica and I can still vividly remember the withdrawal process.
It was a true nightmare: nausea, flu-like symptoms, a lot of pain in arms and legs, headaches…
I also had a lot of side effects while on Lyrica.
It basically turned me into a zombie, but then I was on 600mg!
Please do remember to taper slowly.
Very important.
I see you were on 450mg of Lyrica/daily and have been told to reduce by 75mg a week.
Those are huge drops that must make you feel pretty awful…
It’s better to reduce by 10% every 2 weeks or even every 4 weeks to avoid withdrawal symptoms as much as possible, so, in your case, that would be a reduction of 45mg every 2 weeks.
But, of course, you need to be able to find capsules of 45mg of thereabouts.
Or you could do a water taper (just google!).
It means you open up the caspsule and mix the required amount of powder with water and take that.
Anyway, be careful, go slowly and take care.
You can do this!
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I have experienced bad side effects with drawling down on Lyrica. I had Vomiting, diarrhea and dizzy spells. I thought I was on a heroin stop. Wow. Go slow. There may be a 10 or 20 mg to use to cut down to 75mg. I am on 75 mg but would like to be off it. I gained weight since taking it. Good luck!
It is probably very different for different people, but for me getting off Lyrica was symptoms free (and I went down even faster, at a rate of 75 every three day).
Go very slowly at the end when you get to about 75 mg and ask your dr for lyrica liquid .The last bit is awful if you go too fast like I did and had to be in bed for one week with hallucinations,headaches,nightmares…titrated back up to 100mg and then it took me about six months to get off with no side effects.Currently back on as had very bad flare up but only at 100 mg.Good luck!
I have been on lyrica for about 3 years now, I just take 75mg twice a day, plus 50mg of tramadol, I tried to come down off the lyrica about a year ago and I had horrific side effects lost a lot of weight in a short time could’nt Eat feeling sick all the time, and felt .sucisidal, so I had to go back on them, and they don’t work as good for the pain, but I will not up the dose, as they have affected my quality of life, and I now have chronic stomach problems with a lot of pain, I urge anyone out there do not go on these drugs, I am a woman of 75years.
I agree 75mg every week is way too fast. I also agree dropping abt 10% every 2 to 4 weeks is best, particularly since you mentioned you had trouble before.
Lyrics comes in 25mg, you may want to convert your prescription to that so you can taper slowly. You might need a prior auth with your insurance for so many pills but filling out the form that it’s to taper off will get it approved.
That being said I dropped lyrics cold turkey after about 8 weeks with no real issues but then again I dropped it because the initial side effects were so bad for me any withdrawal was no doubt an improvement!