2 replies to this topic

[Dementron]

I've been on 120 mg of Cymbalta a day for about 6 or 7 years now for fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety. It doesn't seem to be helping any more (if it ever really did), and I suspect it may be causing my inability to wake properly from dreams.

 

If I wake from a dream I'm extremely groggy until I've been able to sleep again long enough to cycle through the sleep stages. For years I've had to deal with randomly missing appointments and such because if my alarm wakes me from a dream I'm completely useless and it's too dangerous for me to bike anywhere. Lately I've been waking from dreams several times a night. I'm sick of it.

 

So, my doctor wants to wean me off over the course of a month. She has prescribed Bupropion and Naltrexone. I was going to wait to start those because I wanted to get off the Cymbalta and just see what it was like not being medicated for a while, but having done some research on the withdrawal that is clearly not going to happen.

 

I'm 34 and I'm already on disability for pain, anxiety, depression and agoraphobia. I'm generally not a healthy person. I'm trying to stay optimistic and remind myself that I won't necessarily get any particular side effect I've read about (trying to avoid the nocebo effect), but I am a bit concerned at this point.

 

So now I'm wondering, should I taper off slower? Should I start my new medications now so they can help me deal with the withdrawal?

 

Sorry if I've rambled a bit. I've dropped down to 100 mg over the last couple days and I've been pretty out of it.

[fishinghat]

Welcome Dementron
 
I can certainly understand your concern. There is a couple things that have caught my attention. Normally the dr will wean you off one anti D while weaning you on another one. This is what the Bupropion is for. The dr should have set you up a schedule of say 25 mg the first week, then 50 mg the second week, etc while tapering the cymbal in a similar fashion. That is just an example. Each cross taper (that is what it is called) has a slightly different schedule depending on the patients history and the ADs involved.
 
The next thing is the Naltrexone. It is used almost entirely for alcohol and/or opium addiction. I don't know why he/she would thing it helpful in your case.

Yes I would definitely start the switch to Bupropion. It will make coming off the Cymbalta much easier. Typically you will still have a few bad yucky weeks but not the terrible withdrawal that most of our members here have suffered through.

 

Keep us posted and let us know how it goes.

 

 

[Dementron]

Thank you. I hope it doesn't get too bad. I'm so sleepy I can barely function.

There's evidence that Naltrexone can help with chronic pain and works well with Bupropion (they're even starting to be bundled into a combination pill). Too tired for details right now. I'll go back over the info my doctor gave when I'm more lucid.