Cymbalta
 

Is anyone else using Cymbalta or tried it? I was originally on 30mg and was upped to 60mg for two weeks, but discussed with my doctor and agreed to remain on 60mg. It has erradicated muscle tension symptoms, neck pain, sinus pain, face pain, insomnia and my fatigue has greatly improved. As well as having neurological pain killing qualities it also is an antidepressant so my mood has improved greatly with it. In addition I no longer have noise sensitivity and light sensitivity, but still have ear,eye and teeth ache occassionally. I know that I have a background dull headache a lot of the time, but if this was to progress into a migraine I have Imigran as back up and this takes the headache and other symptoms like toothache, eye and ear pain away.

A doctor suggested it a year ago but I was worried about the side effects and withdrawal issues, and I was not feeling depressed at the time. good to know that so far it seems to be working well for you! Do you think the improvementin noise sensitivity is related to Cymbalta? When was your injury? Thanks for sharing.

My injury was early November 2012 and it wasn't until February that I had to admit I was very worried about the future and my mood was very flat. So at the end of February I was prescibed Cymbalta. It is hard to say that Cymbalta has erradicated noise and light sensitivity because these symptoms had already started to come and go - they were previously constant.

I would say that Cymbalta has helped my mood and this has in turn reduced symptoms. Worrying about symptoms of PCS increases the symptoms, so I suppose Cymbalta calmed down my thinking. It has also certainly helped with pain - in particular near constant sinus pain, jaw pain, cheek pain and it has reduced migraine type headaches. I previously had very bad insomnia, fatigue and tension waves through my body and leg pain/ache since November - and Cymbalta has also dealt with all of these symptoms as well. I suppose I am lucky that my doctor had faith in this drug to cure my numerous symptoms. I am still not completely better, but would say I am 75% better and I no longer have any side effects now the drug is well into my system. I hardly need to use Imigran anymore. Obviously withdrawal will be an issue, but I hope that I will only need Cymbalta in the short term so the withdrawal will not be so bad. It is a very good drug to take if it agrees with you.

I use cymbalta 60 mg twice a day. I have not had any of the issues you have, but have been on sleeping pills for years.

I'm on 60mg of cymbalta as well and have not noticed side affects. I think it does reduce my facial pain. Are you also in physical therapy? A lot of my facial pain came from my jaw being out of alignment-I didn't figure this out until over a year after my accident. I now use an orthodontic device to re-align my jaw and I ice my face and jaw and shoulder regularly. Hope this helps.

medication worth a shot!
 

I am not on Cymbalta but I've recently started taking Effexor (very small dose of 37.5mg) and I can also say that it helps with noise and light sensitivities, dizziness, brain fog, being able to go out and busy places, concentration, etc.

Mokey, you should give it a shot! Look up anxiety symptoms and you will see that almost all of your symptoms are also anxiety symptoms. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the issues aren't because of the concussion, I'm just saying that concussions cause anxiety and depression because the emotion centre is damaged. The anxiety/depression causes the body to overreact to stimulation.

The brain will only grow new pathways if it is challenged to grow stronger (like a muscle that needs to be challenged to get bigger) and if the emotions are always overreaction and not allowing you to do an activity, then the brain will not get stronger. If you can calm down the symptoms not only will you feel better but your brain will start to heal and get stronger.

The other thing to remember is that there is NO harm at all being done to your brain or body and these reactions are OVERREACTIONS that are not needed. You do not need to fight or flee. You have to retrain your mind that everything is ok and there is nothing to be afraid of or reacting to. Of course this is not the case for people in the early stages of concussion recovery! They should just be resting!

Anxiety and depression aren't just feelings like "oh poor me I'm so sad"or "I can't do this anymore" they are actual physical, chemical responses that are occurring whether we know it or not and we can't control them just by thinking happy thoughts or wishing them away! Sometimes medication is needed.

I hope I've explained this well enough. My neuropsych did a good job of explaining it to me but I'm sure some of it's been lost in translation. Anyhow, don't be afraid of the medication if it could be life changing! If it doesn't work you can always stop taking it but if it does work you could get your life back!

I was experiencing some nausea and stomach pains from my effexor but at the one week mark now those are mostly gone. I am having no other side effects. I'm supposed to double the dose at 10 days but I'm pretty happy at this dose so might experiment with it here for a while.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

CC

I tried cymbalta, but within a couple days, I could no longer pee and ended up at the ER. At the time I did not realize it was related, but after they asked at the ER what meds I was on and found out I had just started taking cymbalta, they suspected it was the cause. I stopped taking it and after a few days of dealing with the catheter, all was resolved.

Its apparently quite rare in women, but happened to me. I wasn't on it long enough to find out if there was any improvement with it.

Starr

Concussedlawyer, I was put on it for my mood, but my doctor was aware of my facial and neck pain - it has helped with this and other symptoms. However my pain is back up since starting work, the only time I am painfree is with Cymbalta + Imigran + Nurofen which is quite a powerful cocktail of medication. I am not in physical therapy, and haven't received any hospital treatment because my scans are clear.

Starr - you are unlucky with the urinary retention side effect, I also get this occasionally but drink plenty of water.

Cyclecrash - what you say is true I believe. The psychological side of PCS feeds into the physiological side and vice versa. The symptoms are real, but they are exacerbated by ones emotional reaction to both the symptoms and one's environment. One way to break this cycle is medication like Cymbalta or Effexor. I also had nausea, dizzyness, additional fatigue, and stomach ache initially with Cymbalta, now it is in my system I have no symptoms.

On Cymbalta + Aricept
 

Glad that you are having some relief with the Cymbalta.

I've been on 60 mg. x twice daily Cymbalta for over 6 months now.
It has been effective for me in relieving (masking?) many of the physical pains and aches, as well as reducing the 'headache' malaise to barely-discernable.

It also seems for me to have decent anti-depressant effectiveness.

However, it was for me the *addition* of Aricept that really made the greatest difference in my cognitive functioning, i.e. significant improvement.

I also seem to experience fewer/lesser of the negative-side-effects with the Cymbalta, as compared to others.
However, a small aside: the negative sexual side-effect :( is still there ... as seems to be the case for me with *all* anti-depressants.

Good luck to you each and all in your continued recovery.

Sincerely,
Theta

Theta,

I think you hit the nail on the head with the term 'masking', I feel that many of the problems are still there but are disguised by the Cymbalta. One thing I do know is that I wouldn't be as improved without it as I am back working part time and it has reduced all my symptoms. I am glad it is helping you and others, and its a pity about some of its side effects for people. I hope you continue to recover as well. It is nice to know that other people with PCS have found Cymbalta very helpful.