Duloxetine Beads And Variations?

I have been bead counting my way down from 30mgs to 20mgs. My biggest problem, and question for the experts: There are different sized beads! I try my best to say OK this bead is big enough to be 3 stuck together, etc.
Also, within a 30mg tablet, the number of beads ranged from 126-200!
After getting down 50 beads looking at the capsule it appears to be approx 2/3 full, which to me would indicate I'm ready for the 20s...
Sooo I went to 2 pharmacies and asked if they would please weigh the 30mg capsule less 50 beads to see if it was 20mgs. The first pharmacy basically told me I was ducking crazy get out of here with that nonsense we won't do that for you. Great. The 2nd was willing to weigh the beads for me...0.140g, or 140mgs!! Wtf?? She said this is not an accurate way to taper because there are fillers surrounding the actual medicine, so some weigh more than others and there is no way to truly weigh the medicine itself.
Hellllllp!! I'm very very miserable (for many reasons, including antibiotics flaring up benzo withdrawl symptoms). I'm very close to going to the mental health facility for a few days, and if I'm down to 20mgs I want to be sure that is all they give me so that I don't lose my progress!!

Hi Jenn, I'm sorry you're feeling miserable ... esp. the benzo withdrawal flare-up ... I didn't bead count, so I don't want to comment on that and will leave it to FH and others here who have experience ...

 

My concern is that you're trying to get off two drugs at the same time ... crapalta and benzos ... both of which are tough to deal with individually ... have you considered picking just one to get off of at a time?

 

Also, perhaps you need to either go up a bit on the cymbalta until you stabilize ...then start coming down? Or, better yet, stop dosing down on both drugs until you stabilize, then pick just one to focus on ?

 

If you're feeling close to heading to the mental health facility, that tells me you're pushing your poor brain / body way too hard and too fast ... this isn't a race to the finish ... it needs to be a slow, gentle, controlled (by you, not the drugs) process ...

 

Hang in there, you've made huge progress, and you're going to get through this and be drug free ... you just need to go easy on yourself !  

I am 9 1/2 weeks benzo free...was cold turkeyed...I agree that this is a lot for my body, but I didn't want to be on the Cymbalta for too long once I joined this forum. Was on 1 month (the facility started me on it because I was miserable from acute benzo w/d, so I was called depressed...). Read this and all the warnings and said holy shit I've been duped! Am currently also on Remeron and gabapentin, all again from that facility. Was feeling OK so decided to tackle the C first. Just want to know what's up with these beads!

Your dr is an idiot. The 140 mg i9s correct. Each individual bead has a thermoplastic coating on it so it dissolves in the body and not on the shelf. Once in your body it heats up, softens and turns to a liquid which releases the medicine. There is some variance in weight for each bead but the amount of variance is usually due to the amount of coating not the amount of medicine inside. Even so bead counting is still much more uniform and slow than dropping 10 or 20 mg at a time like some drs do. Most people don't realize that pills don't have to be exact. Manufacturers are allowed a 4% or so variable.

Thank you fishinghat! So your thinking is that if I have 100 beads left in my 30mg capsule, and there are 100 beads in the 20mg capsule, regardless of weight or bead size, it is pretty safe to say I'm down to the 20mgs?

Wow, Jenn, you've really been through a wringer    ... CT on benzos, and put on crapalta for "depression" ... I apologize, I should have read your earlier posts before responding ... FH is right, both what he says about your doc, and definitely what he says / knows about the cymbalta ... stick with his instructions, and you'll get dosed down and off the stuff safely ...

You are right Jen.

Jenn, sounds as though you have the calculations right.  Fishinghat and FiveNotions have already commented to your concern.  Well I have to say since you've gone cold turkey on the benzos first, I would also agree on this slow taper with your cymbalta.  Keep us posted....

i know that when im opening a 60 mg capsule of cymbalta (eli lilly's), i usualy have somewhere around 575 beads. so i guess there is a variance also between countries.

You are right Zivcha. How are you doing?

well...surviving I guess. down to 10 mg by now. heart palp's are killers. anxiety from time to time. BUT I'm OK

going to the gym, and focusing on my exams (3/6 are already behind me with).

I'll update soon.

Thanks FH.