I have idiopathic neuropathy,and my neurologist has been pushing me to try Cymbalta to help manage the pain in my legs and feet. I finally relented and started a 30mg dosage 4 days ago.

I have always felt a little off and tired due to the neuropathy, but now I am completely exhausted and feel loopy like a bad high pretty much all the time. Is this what most people experience starting this drug and will the effects lessen soon? Has Cymbalta significantly helped anyone else out there with nerve pain?

I am tired of putting drugs into my body and not knowing what they are going to do to me...unless it is really going to help! I was on Tramadol 50-100mg a day and felt like that was helping more than this drug but worry about being on pain meds for the rest of my life? So confused...

Hi Cat,

My doctor is pressuring me (strongly suggesting) to try Cymbalta (duloxetine) too. I've been down the road with other SNRIs, as well as SSRIs and TCAs, and had very bad reactions to all of them. He seems to have forgotten all that. Worse still, he knows (or should know) I'm currently taking other meds that increase my risk of serotonin syndrome/toxicity, yet seems oblivious to piling on more.

There was another thread about Cymbalta recently...

Cymbalta now in generic form: duloxetin HCL

...and there is much more in the archives (Search)—bad and good—including side effects and duration.

Doc

Thanks Dr. Smith. I have read several of your other very informative and sympathetic posts and it is appreciated to those of us who are clueless.

I am going to call my doctor tomorrow and tell her what I am feeling. If she says to stick it out a few more days, I am not sure what to do. This is my first time trying an AD so it is highly likely I cannot tolerate them well either. My family says to keep on taking it and see what happens, but on the other hand they are out to dinner right now and I am sitting at home feeling like a zombie and posting on a computer!

It is funny that I am so desperate for a doctor to solve my problems I will believe anything they tell me. After all the doctors I have been through the past few years, you would think one would learn! So glad to have found this forum and all of you who really understand and care enough to share your knowledge and stories.

May I ask how old you are? If pain meds help, and tramadol is near the bottom of the pyramid as far as heavy pain meds go, I think they have fewer side effects than antidepressants. Many people ignore the fact that lots of drugs have dependency issues, not just opiates. If you have started the Cymbalta it is probably worth sticking it out for a while and doing your research to see if it helps. If it doesn't I would stick with the tramadol. If you are very young or very old there could be reasons to avoid some pain meds which is why I impertinently asked about your age.

I have only been taking the Cymbalta for a few days and thus far it just makes me feel worse. I am 40??

I understood that about the Cymbalta. I had a really bad experience with Effexor and had to discontinue after a few days. I could barely see, my pupils were so dilated, and I couldn't stop yawning, couldn't sleep. I was only suggesting that since you have started, if possible stick with it a for a couple of weeks to see if it can help. A lot of people end up with an anti-seizure medication, an anti-depressant, and an opiate for severe PN. I am on 1800 mg. Gabapentin and 30mgx3 time release morphine with oxycodone 7.5 / 325 for breakthrough pain. I have severe leg pain most likely from muscle atrophy.
Age factors into any decision about pain management and a lifelong chronic illness. If you are very young opiates are not a great idea as they do have to be adjusted upwards after a while, although this process can be very slow. The prospect of taking these meds for most of one's life is not ideal. Any side effects would be magnified and there may be cognitive losses. In the elderly cognitive effects may be much more pronounced. Your age makes it more complicated to make the call, all you can do is read everything you can about the options in pain management. Neuropathic pain is notoriously hard to treat but hopefully you can find something that gives you a decent quality of life without too many side effects.

Many of us have had bad experiences with doctors. You learn very quickly not to trust them too far or believe everything they say. PN is a very difficult disease to treat and very elusive to diagnose. Patients easily can become better informed than their doctors if they do their research.

I've had more than one doctor tell me that savvy patients often do know more about their afflictions/conditions/diseases than their doctors do, and no wonder. As it was put to me by the doctors...

A doctor has to learn about hundreds/thousands of diseases in a very short time in med school and afterward in residency. During that same short time, they have to learn about everything else—medications, surgery, procedures, anatomy, etc. Once they get into practice, they may have several hundred patients with different problems, as well as keeping abreast of new developments/education.

OTOH, we individual patients only have ourselves (and maybe immediate family) to concern ourselves with, and only a few medical conditions; we've got many many more hours—running into years—available to research our individual conditions. It's true that we lack much of the associated background and formal education, but some of us learn that (or as much of it as we need/can stand) as we go. And we can read 10-100 times or more articles about our respective PNs, treatment, etc.

Now if we could only get PAID what those guys get...

Doc

Exactly. That is why you need a doctor who knows a lot about your disease. In a CMTers case, we need an expert neurologist who knows CMT. Fortunately I knew about CMT for many, many years as it goes way back in the family. Family history certainly does help.

I have researched CMT for many years as well and have seen it first hand many times. My support group of course is full of people with CMT and in all stages of it. You can spot a CMTer by the way they walk without a doubt. That is if you know CMT.

Thanks for bringing up what regular doctors, shall we say, go thru. Most have never even seen anyone with CMT or if they have they have diagnosed it as something else. My regular doctor said she had had ten minutes on it. In my case, I'm the only one she has seen, and not for CMT, so why would she read up on it. She will probably never see another person with CMT. And a doctor's time is limited so on with the more obvious things people come in for.

It's not like the old days either where you could really visit with your doctor and talk about a lot of stuff. Now you have to be careful what you say to your doctor, your eye doctor, your chiropractor, you name it as they write it all down and there it is in your records and out there and you thought you were only telling them.

Antidepressants also take about a month to level up in the body. While it is definitely worth talking with your doc about the issues it will take time for the body to get used to them and for them to start having a constant effect.

I'm on Lyrica, One of the anti seizure drugs and I was off work for a month while getting used to it. Was a long time to be stuck not doing much at all.