Im at a crossroads in my psych treatment. After being on Cymbalta for a few years, nine months ago, my doctor switched me to Emsam.

My fibro pain got significantly worse, and my depression has not been great of late on Emsam. Im currently titrating off Emsam -- having no anti depressants really stinks and doesnt make the fibro pain easy to tolerate -- and I have to talk to him about what anti depressant to try next on the 13th.

Im tempted to ask him to put me back on Cymbalta. Im type 2 bipolar, and I feel like my overall mood would be somewhat improved if I didnt have so much pain. But Im not sure its the best anti depressant for me.

Am I crazy? I cant take a lot of medications cause Ive also had gastric bypass -- cant imagine what my pain would be like if I was still 140 pounds heavier as I was 3 years ago -- so I think things like Lyrica are out. Is there any other medications I can try for fibro pain that I might ask my doctors about?

Thanks from a lurker ...

Dor.

The evil fog struck again. This time, lasting for enough days of "forgetting" to refill my Cymbalta that I started having withdrawal symptoms.

Luckily, I was able to get it filled today and restart it.

Anyone have a guess on how long it'll take before the withdrawal symptoms subside?

i have been on Effexor XR for about...3 years. I started at 100mg and am now up to 375mg. I have realized that if I am ever out of my Effexor, my body just aches worse than anything I have ever felt. My psych nurse practitioner and general physician say that's because Effexor can help with pain. I guess this is true for me! However, I still hurt pretty darn bad even with the Effexor.

My doctors have suggested going on Cymbalta. Now, I am hesitant to do this for 2 reasons. 1) I have had extraordinary success on Effexor for depression. I have not been depressed consistently for years w/ Effexor. 2) I don't know how well Cymbalta will work.

I know everyone is different in how they react to meds, but I wanted some feedback. How many of you have switched from one anti-depressant to Cymbalta to manage pain? How did Cymbalta compare to your other medication(s)? Did it work the same as your old meds?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

My doctor prescribed me Cymbalta (60mg/day) last week, since it's supposed to help with peripheral nerve pain (and, of course, anti-depressants can help with fibro). The first few days, I took it in the morning, and I was a zombie. I was sleepy, and when I was actually awake, I often felt spacey. I felt some pain relief almost right away, partially because I felt sorta numb (similar to when I've taken Benadryl in the past or cough syrup with codeine).

I decided on the fourth day to move my dose to the evening because I'm supposed to go back to teaching on Wednesday. The first night I did that, I couldn't fall asleep for hours (until around 3am), which I just chalked up to my messed-up sleep schedule from being on vacation. However, last night was my second night taking it at night, and I absolutely could not sleep. My mind was racing, and I had tons of energy. I was sort of panicky, though. Frankly, I felt manic. I finally fell asleep around 4:30 this morning, woke up with my alarm at 5:30, dozed while my husband showered, and got up at 6:20. I had meetings this morning, and people commented that I was quite bubbly.

Has anyone experienced this? I'm not sure what to do tonight. My doctor also gave me Trazodone as a sleep aid, but I haven't taken it yet because I was wary of taking two new meds at the same time, particularly two different anti-depressants.

I guess I'm just looking for some advice/comments. Ugh...

it's been a long time since i've posted.

i got prescribed ultram today. my doctor was between that and flexeril, and opted for the ultram as i've had allergic eye reactions to trazodone before and he thought that would likely happen again w/ flexeril. the more i read about ultram though, the more i'm getting worried...i'm also on cymbalta (been on it for a little over a month). i'm also on ambien, 5mg every night at bedtime. my doctor told me to take the ultram at night/bedtime as well, but made no mention of whether or not i could also take the ambien at the same time. i also take promethezine occasionally for nausea, and i've read not to mix those two either. i mean i should probably go ahead and assume that my doctor knows what he is doing, being that he's the one who prescribed all of the above, but it still makes me kind of nervous. i don't have a history of seizures or convulsions or anything but, still.

i also feel like i'm still waiting for the cymbalta to kick in. my mood is a little better, and my energy is slowly improving, but prior to the last few days my energy level has been TERRIBLE. i've been sleeping 16+ hours a day, missing so much class...it's been 5-6 weeks since i started it. my doctor told me to just hang in there and give it a bit more time.

sometimes it's a little scary to just put things completely in the hands of a physician and hope and pray he/she knows for sure what he/she is doing.

I started taking Xeristar (Cymbalta) 30mg three nights ago. Now, I´m not sure what I should expect exactly and whether this medication starts working straight away or starts working after a week or two...

I would love to find out from those of you who are also taking it and found it actually *benefits* you, what changes it has made to your symptoms/fibro/life, please.

These are my own observations taking it for just 3 short days now:

1. First night I had insomnia worse than usual and felt slightly nauseous while lying awake in bed. Clenched jaw a lot during the night. Felt GOOD 5 mins after getting up. I don´t know if it was just in my mind, but my arm pain (which is *always* there) seemed to be reduced about 30% less than usual and it appeared like I had much more mobility in my arms, i.e. lifting them with much more ease. Later at work, pains got worse again and I had hot flushes really badly for an hour on and off. These stopped for a while, only to reappear when lying in bed at home later. The pains got better towards the evening again. Only had a tiny bit of fatigue during the afternoon.

2. Second night: just insomnia without the nausea. Also felt really hot again, but not really like sweating.... just hot. My skin didn´t even feel hot, I just had the feeling of heat inside. It´s hard to explain. After getting up felt the same mobility and less pain than usual as on Day 1. Minimal fatigue again, but hot flushes galore.

3. Pretty much the same as Day 1 and 2, plus IBS today.

I don´t like feeling hot a lot of the time and the jaw clenching, but if the pain is reduced I guess I will put up with it. And maybe these side effects will disappear after a while anyway.

One more observation I want to make before asking you to comment with your own experiences is that the (reduced) pain doesn´t feel the same as if I had been taking my usual painkillers (codeine/paracetamol). When I take the latter, my muscles just feel *numbed*. This feeling I have now is different. It simply feels that there is *less pain* and I feel more strength in my arm muscles when I lift things. I hope this makes sense! ;)

Now it´s your turn to tell me. :)

P.S.: And yes, I have read other posts here and done research on duloxetine and I know about the discontinuation syndrome/withdrawals problems. But I´ll worry about that when I need to cross that bridge.

i just started cymbalta last week, and i was supposed to move from taking 30mg to 60mg yesterday. when i started, i was taking the 30mg in the morning for the first couple of days until i realized that it made me EXHAUSTED. so i took the 30mg at night, and was fine. then last night i took 60mg before bed, and i've woken up 4 times in just the past 4 hours...i even took more ambien than usual and that won't keep me asleep! so 30mg makes me sleepy and 60mg keeps me awake?? is that normal? i don't get it.

I have been tapering off of Cymbalta for the past few weeks (decided the seizure risk with Cymbalta plus Ultram wasn't worthwhile, so i chose Ultram ER over Cymbalta since it helps more).

I've been doing just great, no major anxiety or depression, pretty stable emotionally. Not as bad as I imagined. A few "brain zaps" here and there (only people who've had them know what I mean! They're impossible to explain).

Until today. Today's my first day not taking Cymbalta at all (I plan to take 20mg every other day for the next week, but today's the first day with no meds).

OMG BRAIN ZAP-O-RAMA!

I am dizzy and feel afraid to leave the house because I'm so... zappy. This sucks.

Another drug question from yours truly.

Cymbalta has been good to me, but unfortunately my doctor (who I really respect) is concerned about the way Cymbalta & Ultram can potentially interact and doesn't think it's worth the increased seizure risk. I am going to give Ultram a shot all by itself (hopefully now I can get on Ultram ER). It does improve my mood as well as lowering my stress level by reducing pain, so maybe I'll be okay without the Cymbalta (which helped more with mental health than physical pain). I'm going to try acupuncture to help with mood stabilization in addition to using it for my sciatica which it's been quite helpful for. I guess if it sucks too much I can always go back on Cymbalta.

Anyway, my question is this: For those who've gotten off Cymbalta, how have you done so? What was your tapering-off plan?

I ask this because I am extremely seratonin-sensitive - When I get off any anti-depressant, including tricyclics and SSRI's, I get extreme seratonin withdrawal where I end up in constant anxiety, deep depression and panic attacks (even having suicidal thoughts sometimes, and unable to eat).

I'm on 60mg right now, my doc recommended doing a week of 40, then a week of 20, then stopping completely. What has your experience with stopping Cymbalta been? Any ideas for how I can ease the transition?

Thanks.

My doc. gave me some cymbalta samples, but he didn't tell me whether to take the first dose at night or in the morning. Have people found it to be energizing or sedating? Also, in the past when I've gone on Lexapro, Paxil, and other SSRIs, the first day my head was weird -- somewhere between being stoned and having a really bad head cold. Did anyone have that same effect?