Is it possible for a medicine to quit working?

I've been on Cymbalta for about 5 years or close to it...

Right now, I just don't feel as though it is working anymore for anything....
(I was prescribed this initially for RSD pain and then upped dosage for Depression.)

Has this happened to anyone??

Am I going nuts???

Thanks in advance for your help.

Abbie

Abbie,

I'd had medicines in the past stop working for me. What does the doctor say about it?

barbara

I haven't gotten the chance to ask my Pdoc...

I called today and talked with my Tdoc... she said the doc wouldn't be back for a couple of weeks... sigh.

I guess I will do the best I can... keep taking the Cymbalta as prescribed until....


Abbie

Dear Abbie,
The SSRIs can stop working I think -- it has not been my experience because I have not taken them -- in the literature it is sometimes called "Prozac Poop-out."


http://depression.about.com/od/resistance/f/poopout.htm

According to the article:
Sometimes a second drug works.
Sometimes rotating off on more than one drug works.
Going off a drug for a while and then going back on it works.




M.

Yes, indeed.

Even though Cymbalta is not an SSRI precisely, it has many of the same characteristics. It's efficacy is attributed to the reuptake inhibition of serotonin and noradrenaline, so is sometimes classed as an SNRI (or SSNRI), along with Effexor. Both drugs also have a mild effect on dopamine reuptake.

Any drug really can poop out... our receptors simply get "accustomed" to the molecule and become less and less responsive to it.

But it is in fact well documented as per Mari's post above, with SSRI drugs, so, after five years (a long time) it does not surprise me that Cymbalta, a related drug, would fall short in the same way.

i hope the pdoc can come up with some novel ideas!



~ waves ~

I can't tell if the Cymbalta stopped working or if I am sinking into the major depressive side of BP....


The pharmicist thinks it's a downward swing of BP... she has never heard of anyone "maxing out" on Cymbalta.


Oh well... I'll just have to wait a couple of weeks or so to talk with the Pdoc....

Abbie