Cymbalta upped after suicide attempt (my mom)
 

I found out that my mom has been on Cymbalta for a good while now, she suffers from depression and has her whole life. She also has tried suicide before.
Well her Dr had her at 60mg of Cymbalta one time a day but than after this last attempt he upper her to 120mg two times a day.
Does this seam like the right thing to do? Anyone know of any good meds for someone that has this bad of life long (she's 61) depression?
Back when she was in her teen's some Dr tried shock therapy on her. :(

I'm not familiar with Cymbalta (also known as duloxetine) but that seems like quite a jump in dosage to me.

Is your Mom on any other medications that might be interfering with the Cymbalta?

I don't know, she want tell me or her sister what meds (if any others) she's taking. She seams very out of it right now. She'll be here Friday night and I'm going to go with her when we find her a new Dr.

:hug:

julie, use the search feature. see which forum has the most posts about cymbalta. the members there may have more answers.

Julie,

Here is a link that talks about dosage levels of Cymbalta.
http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/cymbalta_ids.htm


Hope this helps.

:hug:
Abbie

It does seem to be quite a jump for all at once. Does you mother also suffer from any kind of chronic pain problems? That is usually why Cymbalta is prescribed as both for depression and the pain problems that can be associated with it.

Cymbalta is newer and there are a lot of physicians that are prescribing it and to me I am against it. They are prescribing for pain patients without knowing or acknowledging the psych affects it has. Most would titrate up to that kind of dosage. She may also be taking something else. You say Dr. are you talking primary or psychiatrist?

Hi momxseven.

I was on Cymbalta from the day it was approved. I was looking forward to it for my fibromyalgia, and the depression.

Originally 'they' said 60 mg was the therapeutic dose for pain relief. Then my doctor said they changed to 90, so I switched to 90.

I've had problems the last couple years with 'suicidal ideation' and I thought, well...maybe it's one of my meds. First I cut out Ambien because I was a sweathog on that stuff anyway. Didn't seem to make a difference. AFter reading quite a few stories from others on Cymbalta who were having suicidal thoughts, I decided to go off of it.

Wasn't easy going off but I did it. I'm convinced it got to the point of making my depression worse. Not certain, but I got better once I got off of that.

My doc put me on Prozac while going off the Cymbalta until we decided what AD I should proceed with. (Been on the AD merry-go-round.) I've stuck with the Prozac for now because it seems to be helping quite a bit.

Don't know if this helps. If she hasn't seen an overall improvement, I do agree, should go to another doc.

Good luck. :hug:

Thank you all, Good news is my mom is off of cymbalta now and is on Paxcal (spelling?) and she is feeling so much better, she didn't even see how depressed she was until she got off the cymbalta. Today was the 1st day in a long time that she felt really good (her words) :)

That's awesome I am so happy for her. It can be a real trial and error thing. I went through like 12-15 meds and I am highly med sensitive. I hope she continues to do well.

Hey ((Julie)). How's your mom doing now? I hope she's doing really well! :hug: