6 replies to this topic

[jesslynn22]

Hey, I'm new here and this is my first post about my withdrawal from Cymbalta. I'm currently 17 years old and I took Cymbalta for about 8 months. In that time I gained 20 pounds and felt unhappy about it so I stopped taking it recently. Nobody told me about how bad the withdrawal would be and it's really taking over my everyday life. I've lost ability of physical coordination, I've had hallucinations, nightmares, mood swings, and emotional meltdowns. The absolute worst symptom I've experienced is brain zaps. They're very hard to deal with. I can't even go places with friends or drive because if I move my eyes around a lot, it feels like the word is spinning and my heart has like weird fluttery pounding patterns. It's really hard and I feel like when I try to explain it to people, they think I'm crazy. Is there any way that I can lessen them or do I have to tough it out for as long as it takes?

[fishinghat]

Welcome JL22
 
Considering that you have already been off a while and you were only on it for 8 months I would suggest that you open one of your remaining capsules, remove about 95% of the little beads inside, close the capsule and take it. So when you take the capsule it should only have about 5% of the original beads. This should take the edge off for a while and give you some relief. With time you will need to take it less often until it is not needed. 

In addition you can use a little Benadryl from time to time. It is an antihistamine that will help with the emotional issues. If these are not enough you may have to go back on your full dose and wean down slowly by a method we call bead counting.

 

How long have you been off the Cymbalta?

[jesslynn22]

Welcome JL22
 
Considering that you have already been off a while and you were only on it for 8 months I would suggest that you open one of your remaining capsules, remove about 95% of the little beads inside, close the capsule and take it. So when you take the capsule it should only have about 5% of the original beads. This should take the edge off for a while and give you some relief. With time you will need to take it less often until it is not needed. 

In addition you can use a little Benadryl from time to time. It is an antihistamine that will help with the emotional issues. If these are not enough you may have to go back on your full dose and wean down slowly by a method we call bead counting.

 

How long have you been off the Cymbalta?

Thanks for the welcome and advice! I didn't think to do that with the capsules and I suppose it's worth a try. I did go from 60mg to 30 mg and then stopped, so I did a little bit of tapering off (although I have read that dosage doesn't matter because the symptoms still can occur).  I've been off of it entirely for about two to three weeks now.  

[fishinghat]

Do you think that the symptoms are still getting worse or have stabilized?

[jesslynn22]

Do you think that the symptoms are still getting worse or have stabilized?

So I tried the Benadryl and it seemed to work but made me super tired, so instead I tried some 24 hour claritan D and the symptoms have gone almost completely away! It's a bit like magic. I recommend it actually. If you can, give it a try. Also I noticed that if I keep my mind occupied, the symptoms aren't as prominent.

[fishinghat]

Very good info.
 
Claritin D contains loratadine and pseudoephedrine. Loratadine is an antihistamine like Benadryl and Hydroxyzine which are frequently used to treat anxiety although I have never heard of any research on Loratadine for anxiety. I will check out the medical journals for further information and post what I find.
 
The pseudoephedrine is an allergy medicine with no anxiety benefit but it does raise blood pressure and off sets the sleepiness of the Loatidine. This is what has made Claritin so popular as an allergy/cold medicine is the effectiveness combined with the lack of sleepiness. Unluckily many people with anxiety (including me) can not take a product with pseudoephedrine in it as it causes increase blood pressure and increases the presence of cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heart beats), skip beats and heart pounding. I might be able to find a product containing just loratadine for those type of people to use. Again I will post what I find.

 

At this point, like with most medicines I would recommend the teaspoon tea cup rule. For those new to the site this is the safety approach to taking a new medicine to avoid allergic reactions, severe side effects or incompatible reactions. If the medicine calls for, example, 100 mg every 8 hours start with 10 mg (part of a tablet), then 20 then 50 then 75, etc. Some sort of step mechanism to be sure your body can handle the medicine appropriately before going to a full dose. This helps avoid a lot of needless suffering

 

Be back soon..

[fishinghat]

Well here is what I found. While research would indicate Loratadine probably would not effect anxiety I did find a couple of forum comments on its effectiveness. The pseudoephedrine has considerable evidence that it causes/aggravates anxiety.
 
Loratadine

https://www.ncbi.nlm...pubmed/10444229
Loratadine, No effect on 'mood'.

While this is the only research I found it is interesting to note that around 4% of people taking loratadine report anxiety as a side effect. This is about the same number of diphenhydramine (Benadryl) users that report depression as a side effect. (FDA)

From Drugs.com
Cardiovascular side effects have included hypertension, hypotension, palpitation, supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, syncope and tachycardia.

Wiki
As a "nonsedating" antihistamine, loratadine causes less (but still significant, in some cases) sedation and psychomotor retardation than the older antihistamines because it penetrates the blood/brain barrier to a smaller extent.[14]

Note - inability to significantly penetrate the blood brain barrier would make it an unlikely anxiolytic medicine.

Do not take with Tagamet or other antihistamines.

Half life - 8 hours.

Metabolism
Loratadine is an H1 receptor antagonist (blocks the action of histamine on the H1 histamine receptor).

Diphenhydramine is an potent H1 receptor inverse agonist (blocks the action of histamine on the H1 receptors but crosses the blood brain barrier readily. Has been shown to reduce anxiety.

Hydroxyzine is a potent H1 receptor inverse agonist as well and has been shown to have substantial effect on anxiety and readily crosses the blood brain barrier.

 

Pseudoephedrine

Wiki
Patients who are prone to anxiety or panic attacks should use pseudoephedrine with caution, as anxiety and restlessness are common side effects, mostly due to the drug's stimulant properties.

http://www.sciencedi...080552323624882
Can cause anxiety as a side effect.

http://research.omic...Pseudoephedrine
Adverse effects
Common adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with pseudoephedrine therapy include: CNS stimulation, insomnia, nervousness, excitability, dizziness and anxiety. Infrequent ADRs include: tachycardia or palpitations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm...pubmed/10999495
"...the drug tended to increase anxiety scores (p=0.092). Depth resulted in a significant increase in anxiety scores (p=0.021) and a significant decrease in verbal fluency test scores (p=0.041)"

https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC4518702/
Over-the-counter cold preparations contain phenylpropylamine and pseudoephedrine, obvious stimulants. Yet patients with unexplained dyspnea may believe they have allergies and take these medications frequently in order to treat their anxiety symptom, further exacerbating their dyspnea and anxiety symptoms. The use of energy drinks with combinations of both caffeine and stimulants is another important example.
And many more research articles....

http://www.ehealthme...loride/anxiety/
(FDA website)
140 people reported to have side effects when taking Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride.
Among them, 12 people (8.57%) have Anxiety