Pregabalin, also known as Lyrica, is an anticonvulsant that is also often used for neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, or generalized anxiety disorders. Although it is a fairly common drug, few people know of its adverse effects. This is why a patient named Ryan Murrihy wants to make all people aware of the risks of frequent use. Risks he’s been dealing with recently. A game
Ryan’s story is quite peculiar: he had read some symptoms of neuropathic pain in a medical encyclopedia and had tried to get his doctor to prescribe pregabalin. For him it was just a game, nothing more. Now, however, he has to fight with a strong addiction to the drug so much so that he has been hospitalized in a dedicated center. That’s why he wants to warn all patients of potential risks. Last year alone, Murrihy recalls, 136 people died from the drug. Anxiety or seizures
The drug is not only used to limit seizures and seizures but is also often recommended for patients with anxiety. It is no coincidence that the new valium is also defined. On the other hand, experts have noted a very high rate related to the increase in deaths associated with the use of pregabalin. If in 2008 no deaths seem to have been registered – according to the official statistics of the ONS – 2009 recorded 4 and since then the numbers have skyrocketed. In part, these figures could also be due to increased sales. In fact, the pregabalin prescription increased by 350% in just five years. The black market
The main problem is that these drugs are sometimes taken without a prescription. “There is now a huge black market for drugs. Some people can sell their prescription, but people also buy it over the internet and from retailers, ”said Dr Mateen Durrani, an adult psychiatrist at UKAT’s addiction treatment service. Murrihy, the 36-year-old who started hiring it for fun, initially tried to buy it through these channels. When the boy went to his doctor, he told him that he was suffering from neuropathic pain caused by an old injury. “At first they gave me gabapentin, but I knew that if I told them it didn’t work, the only other drug they could give me was pregabalin. I knew it and played the doctor to my advantage. I looked for it in a medical journal. I was able to persuade them quite easily and they would keep upping the dose. They seemed enthusiastic enough at the time to prescribe it. ‘Do you feel OK!
As often happens when you take drugs of this kind it gives you an enormous feeling of well-being. According to Murrihy, “you feel happy and drunk but you know what you are doing at the same time.” However, he soon realized that the drug was causing him a strong addiction: his 7-day prescription had run out in two or three and he began to feel ill. Different ways to get addicted
Graham Parsons, Chief Pharmacist at Turning Point believes that one can become addicted to the drug in several ways: “There are people who have received a prescription and develop a therapeutic addiction and are using it more and more, so their dose has to be increased and they will assist. to withdrawal symptoms if they stop. Then there will be those who have received a prescription and then rely on the illicit market. This and the kind of users who like the effects of “pregabs” as they call them, will buy them and start using them. Politicians are always looking for simple solutions to manage the problem of over-the-counter or prescription drug abuse, but there are no easy answers to this. General practitioners are not necessarily trained in addiction issues and must evaluate someone in just eight minutes and may have more problems. It’s difficult, ”Pearson told The Huffington Post.
