13 replies to this topic

[DREW1967]

Hello everyone, new here.  I'm an amputee contimplating starting cymbalta for nerve pain.  I was also offered lyrica and that also has horror stories.  I was on gabapentin which didn't do much other than help me to gain weight.  The withdrawls freak me out but if I have success with it, I should be on it long term.  Did anyone have success with Cymbalta?

[ZappAlta]

my opinion -Avoid this drug and look to an Osteopath

[TryinginFL]

Hi Drew and Welcome!
 
I would advise NOT taking Cymbalta!  It is the hardest to get off of and has the worst withdrawal. Please ask for something else and you might even check out acupuncture. I am fortunate that the acupuncture is working for me and I have only had 5 treatments. It has taken my pain from an 8 down to a 3 or 4 in just that amount of time.

I have fibromyalgia, arthritis and osteoarthritis and my pain had gotten much worse after I cold turkeyed off of 60mg of the C - the withdrawal was hell and all of last year was horrible. I have now been off that poison for 18 months and it has definitely left me with some unpleasant symptoms - as it has for others as well.

This is only my opinion but I would never recommend this drug to anyone.

I wish you the best!

Liz

[thismoment]

DREW1967

Hi and welcome.

I only speak for myself, and advocate nothing. If I were in your place I would choose opiates or opioids (partly synthetic) medications. These are true pain medications.

Of course there are side-effects from all meds, and opiates are no different in that respect. All psychatric meds are dependency-forming neurotoxins, and as you know opiates are dependency-forming as well.

But note this: In the United States there are more than 14,500 specialized drug treatment facilities that provide counseling, behavioural therapy, medication, case management, and other types of services to persons with substance use problems-- and these facilities can help you get off opiates if getting off makes sense. There is NOT ONE clinic, however, that deals with withdrawal from Cymbalta or similar psychiatric drugs.

Therefore, you have a gigantic safety net for recovering from opiates-- but there is no such net for the 49 million Americans currently on dependency-forming psychiatric medications that can yield horrendous withdrawal symptoms.

[fishinghat]

Welcome Drew

 

Most of the medical research that I have read puts it around a 50/50 chance of helping and with all the nasty side effects and withdrawal I would not recommend it. Just my humble opinion.

[FiveNotions]

Hi Drew, I'm so glad you found as, and that you are researching this and asking questions!
 
I echo what TM says .. and the others ...

I don't think we've ever had this question from an amputee before, most of the folks here who've taken Cymbalta for pain, and then struggled (suffered) to get off of it have had fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, etc. (Correct me please, forum friends, if I'm wrong on this statement.) I'm not sure that the pain associated with an amputation would be in that category ...

Cymbalta was never intended to be used for pain management ... that use was "cooked up" by Eli Lilly, the mfgr, to expand the market for it once the market for its use as a psychiatric med had been saturated ...
 
The research on its use for pain has not shown it to be superior to other drugs, such as TM mentions ... if you'd like some of those articles, just let me know and I'll post the links for you ...

[fishinghat]

This is all I could find relating to your specific situation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm...pubmed/20303003
ONE sucessful case of amputee phantom pain treated with Cymbalta AND Lyrica (pregabulin).

https://www.ncbi.nlm...pubmed/24224475
Mixed results with Lyrica

https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC3308715/
A review of research which highlights the effectiveness of various drugs therapies to treat phantom limb pain (plp). Check out Table 1.

[FiveNotions]

This Mayo Clinic resources seems like a good discussion of all the available treatment options (medication, alternative, surgical) for amputation-related pain:

http://www.mayoclini...nt/con-20023268

And, I found these articles on alternative therapies / treatments ..

Phantom limb pain: potential new treatment method for amputees
http://www.medicalne...cles/273130.php
(See the citation to the research journal article at the bottom of the page.)

Mirror Therapy as an Alternative Treatment for Phantom Limb Pain: A Short Literature Review
http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC3710949/

Acupuncture for the treatment of phantom limb pain . . .
http://www.biomedcen...-015-0668-3.pdf

[lady2882Nancy]

Hey there DREW1967

 

I took Cymbalta for nerve pain for a damaged back and it did not work for me at all. Worse my doctor insisted that I increase the dose beyond what is recommended for pain and made it all that much harder to withdraw from.

 

As fishinghat said it is a 50/50 crap shoot as to whether it will work for you or not and stopping it later can be horrendous. I do know from various research I have done that it will either help you at 30mg or it will not and there is no point in increasing the dose and go higher if it doesn't solve the pain problem at 30mg.

 

I did use Lyrica for awhile prior to taking Cymbalta and it did help with the pain but gave me problems with my short term memory which was incredibly frustrating when trying to hold down a job. To make it worse, I didn't realize that my memory wasn't good and was always accusing people (especially my spouse) of not telling me things.

 

I had to go the physical therapy route to get relief from my pain and have been somewhat successful. Of course that doesn't help you.

 

I hope you can find some relief for your pain

 

Take care of you

[DREW1967]

Hi Drew, I'm so glad you found as, and that you are researching this and asking questions!
 
I echo what TM says .. and the others ...

I don't think we've ever had this question from an amputee before, most of the folks here who've taken Cymbalta for pain, and then struggled (suffered) to get off of it have had fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, etc. (Correct me please, forum friends, if I'm wrong on this statement.) I'm not sure that the pain associated with an amputation would be in that category ...

Cymbalta was never intended to be used for pain management ... that use was "cooked up" by Eli Lilly, the mfgr, to expand the market for it once the market for its use as a psychiatric med had been saturated ...
 
The research on its use for pain has not shown it to be superior to other drugs, such as TM mentions ... if you'd like some of those articles, just let me know and I'll post the links for you ...

Hello, I'm looking to take cymbalta for the nerve pain that I have.  Once you have a limb amputated the nerves have been seriously affected.  Hence the phantom pains and sensations.  I have one nerve that runs deep down the side of my residual limb that I have not been able to calm down with any therapies including heat, ultrasound, tens unit, sensation management and meds.  Apparently cymbalta is supposed to "calm" the nerve not necessarily treat the pain.  I appreciate all of the input I'm getting on here and frankly am very concerned thinking about taking it.  I can't take narcotics which wouldn't help anyway since it is a nerve issue.  Thank you again

[thismoment]

Here's a link to Opioids Effective for Chronic Nerve Pain.

 

"This study provides strong evidence that opioids are valid and effective drugs for relieving chronic neuropathic pain," lead researcher Michael C. Rowbotham, MD, tells WebMD.

 

http://www.webmd.com...onic-nerve-pain

[FiveNotions]

Drew, thank you for the additional info on what you're dealing with. I'll do some research on this for you, and will post what I find here.

I'm going to be away from my computer for most of the day today and this evening, so I won't be able to get to the research until tomorrow.

Please stay with us here, we'll do everything we can to help you !

Oh, a couple of follow-up questions ... how bad is the pain, in terms of interfering with life activities for you? Is it constant or intermittent? What other meds are you currently taking? (I want to be sure to check for possible adverse drug interactions.)

[FiveNotions]

Drew, I had an unexpected bit of time this afternoon, and started researching this for you. This first thing I did was to look for some discussion forums specifically for amputees ... and I found a lot of them. I sorted through them, and selected the ones that seem to have the highest quality information and the greatest number of members / participation. They all have discussions of, and resources related to, pain meds and treatments.

Amputees Support Group
http://www.dailystre...s/support-group[main page]
http://www.dailystre...eurontin/page-2[discussion about pain meds]

Amputee Coalition -- wide range of resources, including facebook, discussion forums, listservs
http://www.amputee-c...munication.html

Amputee Discussion & Support Forum
http://amputees.proboards.com/[home page]
http://amputees.prob...pain-management[wide variety of pain management discussions]

Heather Mills Amputee Forum [Europe, but it's set up / designed just like this forum, and seems to have a lot of resources and discussion threads]
http://www.heathermi...dex.php?act=idx

[FiveNotions]

Drew, here are the best of the research articles I found. I don't think you've visited the forum in the last couple of days, so I'm going to send you a PM to let you know there's some more info for you here.

Phantom Limb Pain: A Systematic Neuroanatomical-Based Review of Pharmacologic Treatment [full text]
http://as-review.es/.../mesa4/1/02.pdf

Phantom limb pain: A review of evidence-based treatment options
http://www.wjgnet.co...1\WJA-3-146.doc

Advances in the Treatment of Phantom Limb Pain [full text]
http://bit.ly/1TDl4XX