Originally Posted by MAT52

I weaned off Cymbalta last week after dropping down from a few months on 30mg to a few weeks on 20mg to a week on 10/5mg. I've been terribly unwell for the last two weeks and things worsened even further after I stopped altogether.

I don't know for sure that the severe foot and leg pain, nausea, loss of appetite and GI issues and sickness, nose bleeds, headache and jaw pain and laboured breathing/ chest tightness with dizziness are all a result of coming off Cymbalta. The timing fits but I've had a lot of these symptoms for a long time now - they've just got much worse is all.

I use Epsom salts and spray magnesium oil on my legs and arms each night but the pain is epic now. It is particularly awful in my feet, ankles (inside) and knees - where it throbs and burns constantly - affecting my gait and sleep. I would give this pain about a 9/10 on my scoring chart just now. But my hands and neck, jaw and nose, shoulders and my back are all very achy and neuralgic too. I am nauseous, retching after food and find it hard to eat generally because of jaw ache and fatigue - I can barely make the effort to go downstairs to eat and even opening my jaw wide enough is an effort. Temperature wise my feet are like iceblocks and I'm either chilled to the bone (the weather is really bad here in Scotland just now) or I sweat and burn.

I am taking paracetamol (panadol) daily for the headaches and trying to brave it out with the nerve pain - but am really struggling to do anything apart from lie in bed and try not to cry. It's so relentless. Part of me thinks I should just go back on the Cymbalta again and try and wean off even more gradually - but part of me knows that I will just be postponing trouble for myself. I need to know which symptoms are part of my overall condition and which are drug side effects. I will never know this unless I stop taking it.

Because of the nose bleeds and sores someone I know suggested I ask on a Vasculitis site whether this could be my problem. The admin responded saying that it could be a very rare type called GPA/ Wegener's. Has anyone here got periopheral neuropathy relating to this or other types of Vasculitis. It could just about explain my high inflammatory markers and could be crossing over with RA too. I read up and ruled it out because I don't have organ involvement. However this person said it's possible to have it in a limited form which doesn't involve organs.

I'm not really thinking I have this because the nose bleeds and sores come and go and my ears and organs have so far been okay.

But one thing is for sure I can't go on like this without something giving and would also be grateful if anyone could tell me whether they have had this severe kind of drug withdrawal problem with Duloxetine/ Cymbalta - even after only a few months taking it at a relatively low dose. If so how long did it last?