Categories: Drugs/Metabolism

Pregablin (Lyrica) vs Gabapentin (Neurontin)

SIMILARITIES

  • Both medications are often used to treat neuropathic pain and epilepsy
  • Mechanism: Both work via inhibition of Ca+ influx and block release of excitatory neurotransmitters. However, exact mechanism not known!
  • Both drugs can be taken without food
  • Neither drug binds to plasma proteins
  • Both drugs are renally excreted and not metabolized by the liver (CYP Enzymes)
  • Half-life of both is ~6 hours

DIFFERENCES

Pregablin (Lyrica)

Gabapentin (Neurontin)

  • Also indicated for fibromyalgia, and generalized anxiety disorder.(Better for seizure reduction),
  • rapid absorption (peak concentration in 1-2hrs)
  • Absorption is linear (first order), therefore Pregablin plasma concentration increases proportionately with increasing dose.
  • slower absorption (peak concentration in 3-4hrs)
  • Oral gabapentin exhibits saturable absorption; pharmacokinetics less predictable (zero-order)
  • Gabapentin plasma concentration does not increase proportionally with increasing dose

**pregabalin may have some pharmacokinetic advantages over gabapentin; This may be the reason for improved pharmacodynamic effect.

REFERENCES

  1. Bockbrader HN, Wesche D, Miller R, Chapel S, Janiczek N, Burger P. A comparison of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of pregabalin and gabapentin. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2010 Oct;49(10):661-9. doi: 10.2165/11536200-000000000-00000.
Get Medical Pearls directly to your inbox every week!
Weekly posts with high yield medical knowledge, directly to your mailbox!
Dr. C Humphreys

Internal Medicine

Share
Published by
Dr. C Humphreys

Recent Posts

Mechanism of a Mixed Apnea

Mixed apneas are characterized by absent respiratory effort and airflow in the first section of…

12 months ago

How Does Hypothyroidism Cause Hypoventilation?

Although rare, the differential diagnosis of hypoventilation and hypercapnia respiratory failure includes hypothyroidism. It is…

12 months ago

Why is Pro-BNP/ BNP lower in Obesity?

B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a hormone created in response to cardiac wall stretch due…

1 year ago

What is Peribronchovascular Distribution on CT imaging?

A common finding described on computed tomography (CT) imaging. A disease with a peribronchovascular distribution…

2 years ago

Trapped Lung vs. Lung Entrapment

Though often used synonymously; Trapped Lung and Lung Entrapment technically describe separate entities along the…

3 years ago

Cause of Pericardial Effusion in Pulmonary Hypertension: Pathogenesis

It is not clearly understood why patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) develop pericardial effusions. However,…

3 years ago

This website uses cookies.