Some med changes

My pain dr. is changing my antidepressant to Cymbalta. What are your thoughts on this med? Is it working well for you? Do you take at night or am? He has added some Oxy IR  10-20mg for breakthrough which he said will be better than the Percocet. I am on MEslon, changing from twice a day to three times a day. My pain has been horrible so I hope for a little relief soon and some much needed sleep. My body is exhausted. Also google Emotional Freedom Technique - I have had two treatments and they are finding out I have some subconscious blocks from my childhood that are blocking me from moving forward in my pain program. They feel we have gotten to some important aspects towards me being able to heal. Today I will have some trigger point inj. and nerve blocks. I end up with my whole head frozen so no pain, yea, and some needed sleep.

I continue to pray to see my light at the end of the tunnel. I will get well and get back to work!!

Thanks for listening.

Hope you all have a little bright spot in your day today and some sun!!

Suzane

I have a friend with MS that takes Cymbalta for nerve pain.  She isn't really depressed but the cymbalta does take the edge off.  She needs a breakthrough med but the cymbalta has helped. 

From what others have posted on the MS board, it either works fine or it does nothing.  I hope it works for you.

Tmj,
As you know, medications differ for everyone, so you'll need to see how it works for you. I don't know what anti-depressant you're being switched from. Remember these can take several weeks to reach their max. effectiveness. I took cymbalta briefly, and loved it, except it interfered with another medical condition I have, so I had to stop.

Yes, it's generally for nerve pain and depression. The 30mg dose helped my mood, but not the nerve pain, but the 60mg dose was the only medication that made my feet feel normal again. I wish so much I could take it. I take effexor, which is similar but not nearly as good at helping with the neuropathic symptoms in my feet.

If you're only at the 30mg dose, don't give up if you don't feel any relief. Just keep in touch with your doctor and after a few weeks he/she may want to increase the dose.

PaLady

Hi Suzane,

I was on Cymbalta at up to 90 mg/day for at least 4 mo, if not longer (I've been on so many meds now that I tend to forget!). If I remember correctly, I took mine at night. It didn't help me at all (with either pain or depression), but I'm probably a bad example, as I am resistant to most medications. My doctor is fascinated by me because he has never seen anyone as resistant to medication as me & we have no idea why my physiology is so strange.

I don't think (but don't know for sure either) that you'd react faster to the Cymbalta because you were on another antidepressant before, as they are different drugs & have different actions, so it will still take a while for the new med to build up to therapeutic level in your system. Best of luck to you! I hope you find some relief with the new med!

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I have tried EFT. A family member persuaded me to try it about a year ago. I spent several hours on the phone with some guy & found the whole thing really odd. It didn't help me at all, and of course, they guy was "dumbfounded." He ended up saying that it must not have worked because I really have something physical going on (duh!). Lets just say that I was not impressed. But I don't want to discourage you from it & I hope that it can provide you with some relief! Every little thing that helps is worth it!

skeye

Post Edited (skeye) : 7/9/2009 8:19:20 PM (GMT-6)

I take Cymbalta 60mg before bed, and it helps quite a bit for my nerve pain and depression, but it also has done wonders to help control my migraines, as I havent had one of my severe ones since I started the cymbalta 9 months ago. But truthfully the withdrawals of ever having to stop cymbalta scares me alot, if I forget to take one dose, I will start to feel horrible. I get these weird feelings that I call brain zaps, like my brain has some weird mini seizure. So really I havent gone more then a half a day with missing a dose, but I'm scared to know what would happen after a half a day....But then I remind myself that I will always probably need an antidep med cause I'm pretty sure my depression is here to stay. But I will admit that i did expect more from this med, my anxiety is still nowhere in control, but I have no idea how that can be controled at all, I really need to get in to see a doctor that specializes in depression but wont happen but that's a whole other story that I wont get into lol. But everyone reacts to meds way diffrently then the next person, so you shouldn't listen to one's good or bad experience and think that it will happen to you, we all are so diffrent in how our body uses the meds.

-hellokitty

Kitty,
Cymbalta probably isn't the best choice for controlling anxiety, but it's not really designed to. Some other anti-depressants help with anxiety, but again this is individual. There are many other ways to help anxiety that can be done on a self-help basis. There's a great workbook called The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund Bourne, Ph.D. that you can probably get even at the library or fairly inexpensively for a used copy on amazon. It's based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Guided iimagery and relaxation strategies are also helpful. So don't feel you have to rely only on medication for anxiety.

PaLady