I'm an old dog, but I'll cope with new concepts.

I never take a medication without gaining some measure of an idea as to how they work. Reading up about duloxetine and having noticed it blocks two of the same neurotransmitters as cocaine, am wondering if its anesthetic qualities similarly stem from blocking sodium ion channels?

I must admit I enjoyed the happy feelings that came with gabapentin (at least for me), but its pain killing properties were negligible. Pregabalin is more effective, but I don't like the side effects. On gabapentin I felt sharp as a pin, whereas I feel a bit blunt on pregabalin.

My experience is that the medical profession don't have a clue about neuropathy. I'm on my third neurologist, as the first two hadn't read my notes, which was plainly obvious. The new one is better, but would be after I'd lobbed an exec complaint at the hospital (on account of the neurologist mistaking pregabalin for gabapentin, and recommending I increase dosage by a factor of three (and I was on 600mg which she said was a 'baby dose')). Just as well I don't automatically trust what they say, as an increase to 1800mg of pregabalin may have been a bit much even for my system!

Doctors seem to have a list of medications which they'll throw at you until they find one which seems to do more than the others, without such unpleasant effects as some. Other than that, they seem pretty mystified.

I'd rather speak to people who've gone through trial and error, so you'll find me open-minded!

Joe