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[adminKen]

Please share your tips and advice on how you weaned yourself off of Cymbalta.

[kayaem]

Hi all. I am a new member here. I started Cymbalta in October 2009. I had osteomyelitis in my back (infection in the bone in my back - L5/S1). After the emergency surgery I was very depressed because I had to have a PICC line with two antibiotics for three months. Also a nerve was damaged and I had neuropathy down my right leg and into my right foot and toes. The pain was excrutiating most especially at night. The Cymbalta reduced the pain by about 80% within 2 days and knocked out the depression shortly after. However, my blood pressure kept rising to as high as 154/110. I read that this was a side effect of the Cymbalta. Finally I decided that I had to come off this drug to see if it was the cause of my high BP and to see if my neuropathy had subsided on its own. It didn't matter what I did, my BP would not go down. My Pdoc told me to just stop taking it and when I mentioned these postings from other people, he said only the negative people post these things and to stop reading it. I reminded him of my disaster with the SSRI, Prozac and he said not to worry because Cymbalta was an SSNI and this was different and I wouldn't have any problems just stopping it. This is from a Psychiatrist - a medical Doctor!!!! Anyhow, being that I'm not stupid and he must be, I continued to read on the inet about how to come off this drug properly. In Canada the lowest dose is 30mg and thankfully this was the only dosage that I had been on. Six weeks ago I counted out the beads in the capsule - about 290 of them. I started taking the capsules apart and removing beads -- 10 for a few days, then another 10. Last week and this week I sped up the process by removing 20 beads per day. Today I was down to 10 beads, tomorrow will be 5 beads and then zero on Sunday (a very tedious process). Even though I thought this was pretty slow considering it was only 30mg, it was not slow enough. I took last week and this week off work to speed the withdrawal process. I have a swishing in my head - no real zaps as people describe (I know what those are as I had them years ago after coming off of Prozac). The swishing is like a vertigo and makes me dizzy and nauseous and has been getting worse as I get near the end. I have to take 1/2 of 50mg gravol (a low dose so I don't fall asleep - same as dramamine in the USA) several times a day so I don't throw up. The headaches are back. My joints are hurting, especially my neck and head. The neuropathy is still there (numbness in part of foot and toes) but the pain is not as bad as before I started the Cymbalta. However, I am feeling a lot of pain in my back and hips and limping when I am tired (like the pain after my surgery). I am miserable and extremely irritable (poor husband!). I have to go back to work on Monday and I hope I will be able to get through the day without exploding at one of the usual irritants in my day (both people and things!). I have been on other a/d's and the only other time I had this much trouble was on prozac. When I came off Prozac I ended up with those electrical zaps that went from my toe up through my leg to my brain and they lasted for several months. I'm really afraid that this vertigo/nausea is going to last a very long time unfortunately. For anyone else, my recommendation is to definitely NOT go on a plan where you miss the pill for a day -- you can do that on some a/d's but not Cymbalta. I think there is no choice but to painstakingly take the capsule apart. I think I should have done it over three to six months but I was worried about my BP. Now, as the swishing is getting worse as I'm nearing the end, I wonder if it matters how long you take getting off this drug, whether you are still going to get stuck with some type of withdrawal complications. This afternoon, my BP, which is usually the highest in the day (usually high 130's, low 140's over 90 something), for the first time it was 119/84 -- still not perfect but this is a first for me since I started the Cymbalta. I'm praying my head will get better sooner rather than later. What a nasty drug!! I don't understand why the drug companies who manufacture these a/d's, don't provide some type of plan for the withdrawal. They must realize that people have to come off this drug eventually for whatever reason. Why on earth would they think it is okay for the patient to have to work with other patient's on plans for withdrawal. This makes no sense.

My question -- is there anyone out there who has given up the drug, now completely without symptoms and if so how long did it take to completely be free?