Is it common to have side effects to medication not start until months after the first dose? I've been taking Cymbalta for over three months, and I could be just now developing side effects. It's really, really hard to differentiate between side effects to meds and "normal" symptoms of MS.

I don't know how common it is, but I have developed allergies to drugs
that I had been taking for years before. I have a friend who was taking
Prozac for a year and then developed diahrea and had to change to
something else.

B2Y, do you take any other meds besides this one? It could be an interaction.

Hope it's not giving you too many problems. Maybe give your doctor a call and let them know what's going on.

Yes, it is possible; and may be more common in patients who:

- are elderly (poor liver function, hyponatremia - low sodium levels & increased likelihood of falls)
- are taking some other medications
- have a history of liver disease/compromise (may take up to 3 times as long for the drug to clear)
- consume alcohol (liver disease)
- have kidney disorders
- have other medical conditions/disorders (digestive, kidney, cardio-vascular, diabetes, Central Nervous System)

Some of the more common, long term adverse reactions to Cymbalta seem to be related to poor liver clearance of the drug, which may allow it to accumulate over time.


For sure you should see your doctor.
It might be worth having your liver enzymes and function tested. Accumulation of the drug may be a cause of common side effects to appear after taking it for a period of time.

Cymbalta Official FDA information, side effects and uses.
http://www.drugs.com/pro/cymbalta.html

Hope that this helps and that you get it sorted out.

With love, Erika

I took a bad drug for spasms for years, Meprobamate. At first it worked well, but then my neurological symptoms got a LOT worse, and a new doctor thought it was the Meprobamate. I had trouble getting off the Mepro--but finally switching to Klonopin ended the problem. I HAD to take the Klonopin to get off Mepro, it was the only way. I do believe the Meprobamate worsened my condition badly, but the damage didn't show up for years, which is a different situation than with most meds for me. My little son was asking me to get off the Mepro for years, and he was so right.

Absolutely possible. This was my experience with Topiramate (Topamax). I had some side effects soon after starting it, but it wasn't until 4 or 5 months in that the real ugly stuff showed up.

It only got worse too when I began to ween off the stuff. Shudder.

One can develop drug induced lupus from long term use of drugs.

There are now 40+ on the list. This includes old timers thought to be "safe"...like hydrochlorothiazide and the ACE inhibitor family for blood pressure. Lots of other drugs for blood pressure also.

It might mean that because so many people take blood pressure drugs, the pool of prospective reactions is higher for that group.
All of the ones on the lists are chemically different. With more time we might find that all drugs contain this potential, and I've seen some comments to that effect.

I myself had a drug induced lupus AND angioedema attack last Feb or so, life threatening from an ACE inhibitor lisinopril.
That is when I started looking up this risk.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/000446.htm

http://www.lupus.org/answers/entry/w...-induced-lupus

The lists vary depending on what site you visit. Some are very complete, others leave off some drugs especially if they are recently added.

You can try searches on PubMed... to find papers about drugs...
use the generic name + drug induced lupus.

This does not raise ANA panels and a special antibody has to be tested for instead. Many doctors don't know this. Lupus does not always cause the butterfly rash on the face, my skin reactions are on my forearms. And I still have the skin redness, which comes and goes now. (I discontinued the lisinopril--which I had been on for about 10 yrs last February.)

Anyone on long term medications therefore is at risk from any drug IMO.

Thought you might be interested in this: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread199555.html

After 3 months you may have to withdraw slowly from Cymbalta, if you decide to do so. There can be side effects to withdrawal, so discuss this with your doctor before doing it. Depending on your dose you may have to taper.

Mrs. D, I take hydrochlorothizide. My pcp had me try to go without, but my BP went up and my ankles swelled. I guess I don't have a choice.
I can't accomplish the same results with low salt. I would have to practically stop all salt, even that naturally in foods, and that could be bad too.