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Is There A Rate Of Tapering That Seems To Work Best?


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#1 Ramona80

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Posted 08 April 2015 - 01:01 PM

I was on 60 mg for about a year and a half. When I told my psychiatrist I wanted to go off Cymbalta (due to side effects), she told me to start by going down to 40 mg. Terrible withdrawal symptoms began right away. 

 

When I spoke with my psychiatrist, she said I could either taper more gradually, OR add in 10 mg of Celexa (a drug that worked very well for me years ago, before the "poop out" effect.) I told her I wanted to do both of those things. That wasn't what she preferred, but she agreed to have me go to 50 mg of Cymbalta, plus add in 10 mg of Celexa. This has made things tolerable for me. I am still experiencing withdrawal symptoms, but much less so than before. 

 

She wanted me to go be on 50 mg Cymbalta for 3 weeks, then 40 mg for 3 weeks, and so on. So my first question is, is going down 10 mgs every 3 weeks too slow? Is it worth trying 2 weeks instead? I'm curious what has worked for other people.

 

My other question is this: I really would like to be increasing my dose of Celexa as I wean from the Cymbalta. A cross-taper. For some reason, my psychiatrist is against this. She doesn't want me to go above the 10 mg. of Celexa. She wants me to be off the Cymbalta, and on no medication at all to "establish a baseline" of how I do with out medication. (I am a new patient of hers, she only started seeing me last month.) I am worried that not increasing the Celexa might cause worse withdrawals through this process. Any thoughts about this are appreciated!


#2 fishinghat

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Posted 08 April 2015 - 01:33 PM

Hi Ramona and Welcome

 

The rate of drop of Cymbalta is great. What she is worrying about is going on the Celexa too fast while there is still alot of Cymbalta in the body and possibly generating serotonin syndrome. You must remember that Cymbalta, like most ssri/snri, is stored in fat tissue and the liver. That must be taken into consideration. I would say stick with the drs suggestion and if the withdrawal gets too bad just let her know and she will probably increase the Celexa.


#3 Ramona80

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Posted 09 April 2015 - 08:12 AM

Thanks for your reply, I see what you're saying. Then again, I've read about many people cross-tapering with another antidepressant as they go off Cymbalta. That is, slowly increasing the new one as they decrease the Cymbalta. For instance, I've read many times about people doing a successful cross-taper with Prozac. 


#4 fishinghat

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Posted 09 April 2015 - 09:16 AM

Don't misunderstand, I fully agree with you Ramona and I think most of the drs I know would do as you said, I was just trying to shed some light on what this particular dr might be thinking. It is also possible that she is trying to see how little medicine you can handle without symptoms breaking through.





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