Replacing Lyrica withTopamx

[jackcwill]

I have Fibromyalgia, chronic back and neck pain.  I am on Duragesic pain patch, Ultram, Lortab 10 mg, and Lyrica 200mg.  I noticed weight gain and swelling in my legs and feet with Lyrica and wanted to know if Topamax could replace Lyrica.

[Wendnor5]

Be careful if you do start taking Topamaz. I started taking it in conjunction w/my Gabapentin, in the hopes that I could reduce the amount of Gabapentin I was taking as it was causing me weight gain. The Topamax did work well to control my nerve pain, but about 4-5 months in, my hair started falling out! I researched this & was shocked at the number of ppl this had happened to! And sadly, it appears to be permanent, even after getting off of Topamax. My hair stopped falling out, but what I lost has never grown back. My ponytail is almost half as thick as what it used to be. Thankfully, I had a lot of hair to begin with and the loss was all over, so no big bald spots. I do take Biotin now to try & increase my hair growth, but I think it’s only helping me to retain what I have left. Keep in mind, this side effect is more widespread than “officially” reported, can start after being on Topamax for months, even a year or two, & it’s almost 100% permanent.

[cewilcox]

I took topamax for a month for chiari pain and feibro. It made me worse. I usually get most reactions to medicines though. I was depressed and angry all the time. After I stopped taking it I felt a lot better. I have chronic pain 24/7 and nothing works usually. I would rather not rely on pills. I have tried every pill and only ones that work at all and don't make me crazy are excedrin-works as well as anything else, vicodin and morphine.this is just my experience everyones body is different. The number one thing is keeping healthy!! Good diet-lots of veggies, no alcohol, stretching and light exercise.

[Paxiled]

Don't know anything about Topamax -- it's approved use is for seizures and preventing migraines, not treating them, which suggests it's not for pain control, but docs use many things off-label.  Have you tried neurontin (gapapentin), the earlier drug from Lyrica?  Many tolerate it better, some less.  It can also cause weight gain, as will any drug that slows you down -- these drugs are basically GABA, which is the body's relaxant, so when you target that you can gain weight.  The medical approach with fibromyalgia is to treat the pain, the natural approach is to build the body up through diet, exercise, meditation, etc. eliminating all weakening and inflammatory factors.  Snris are now being used for fibromyalgia pain, but they are very difficult drugs and hard to quit and can be liver toxic, but something else to consider if nothing else is working.  Good luck.