Comments: Cymbalta Withdrawal And Why Doctors Don't Listen
I had to laugh when I read the part about when things are going well (paraphrasing here) then it's the miracle drug getting the credit, yet they don't blame the miracle drug when the patient c/o increased agitation, etc.
That was certainly my experience. I remember when the doc added Prozac on top of all of the other drugs I was on at the time (Effexor, lamictal, etc). I thought I was going to go through the roof. The agitation was like nothing I had ever experienced. I was pacing the floor. I want to smash things. I told the doc that since he added prozac I felt extreme anxiety/agitation, so he wanted to add another drug on top of the prozac. I quickly became noncompliant & stopped the prozac - thank god I did that or I would have been in serious trouble.
Maybe part of it has to do with ego. It must be difficult to admit that something they prescribed actually made the patient worse. It's just a lot easier to blame it on the patient's mental illness than for them to take some responsibility.
Posted by Lisa at August 21, 2008 07:04 AM
That's why I gave my doc all the info I could find about Cymbalta withdrawal when I came off it and warned him about what his other patients were likely to experience. It is a NASTY drug.
And just for chuckles, when I had to go in on Monday for a check-up, I had to see a different doc and the P.A. who came in to talk to me asked me if I had taken Lyrica, Cymbalta, etc. That poor girl got a polite earful.
Posted by Puckett at August 21, 2008 07:57 AM
Horrible drug. I have been tapering since August 2007. In order to maintain some kind of life and work, I made tiny drops at long intervals. I'm down to 46 mg.
Not quite 25%. I'm looking into alternative medicine to get help getting off. I can't drop any more on my own. I've tried twice and even a 1mg drop causes all the w/d effects that folks report going cold turkey. It sucks. Totally, totally sucks.
Posted by deborah at August 21, 2008 09:22 AM
OMG, I think I still have nightmares from the horrible months after I went off Cymbalta. I had been getting mine as part of a medical study of fibromyalgia and not only did my physician say she could not prescribe the dosage I was getting as part of the study, my insurance ran out and I had about a 30 day supply of a much lower dose to space out and try to ease the worst withdrawal. That was about year and a half ago. I still get weird auditory hallucinations and my brain pulses. ::cries::
I'm currently without any medical treatment and I think I'm doing a heck of a lot better on my own than I ever did in thirty years of them "helping" me.
Posted by Gwenny at August 21, 2008 03:22 PM
My understand for further tapering is that you can do some sort of titration and space that out every two weeks. I don't have any more info beyond that.
And as far as Cymbalta goes with respect to fibromyalgia, it doesn't seem to work. No surprise there though.
Posted by Puckett at August 21, 2008 05:10 PM
I was on Cymbalta. It worked fine for 2 months. Then I went into mania. REal mania, not the hypo stuff.
I called the pdoc and told her I needed to get off Cymbalta Pronto.
She told me to get off it cold turkey. I did, and a few days later got some really nasty symptoms.
Right now I am back on it because I honestly feel ecen though I have had success going cold turkey in the past with diff meds, this one was particularly horrid. I am on 60 mg, which will be taped down to 40 next month, with the goal of being off it totally by Christmas.
Thank you Cymbalta. I;ve never had brain zaps before. And yes, I have gotten migraines before, but never had them 24/7. At least it gave me one good journal entry in my blog....
I've printed out this article and your other ones. Thank you Philip.
Posted by susan at August 22, 2008 02:13 PM
I've read the previous post: " href="http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2006/05/cymbalta_and_its_problems.html/">Cymbalta and Its Problems from May, 2006 and there are 39 comments, that can be used like testimonies, on terrible problems related to Cymbalta.
Tracy Johnson is remembered on he post.
Once again, once again I'll ask:
WHERE IS TRACY'S FAMILY?
Any friend? Any relative? Nobody?
Once again: this 19 years old healthy woman hanged herself on Lilly's facilities during Cymbalta clinical trials.
Other 4 volunteers also killed themselves. Their names are not known!
WHERE ARE THESE PEOPLE'S RELATIVES, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS...?
How can it all be silenced like this?
I know, I know.
I'm a bore repeating myself. But
WHERE ON EARTH ARE THESE PEOPLE?
Sorry... i've just repeated once again.
Posted by Ana at August 22, 2008 03:18 PM
Meanwhile, the financial press is crediting Cymbalta sales with boosting Eli Lilly's financial picture. Sales of the anti-depressant were up 118 percent over the previous year to $233 million, which means sales ought to hit about $1 billion this year. I guess advertising works after all. But what's interesting to me is that on the ad there is no mention of suicidality or other side effects at all. Then again, what's wrong with suicidality in the first place? These patients are depressed! Or did I miss something? If you have Cymbalta stories of your own, pass them on and I'll post them. I never took Cymbalta myself--Eli Lilly's wonderful Prozac fucked me up enough--but it sounds like a scary little molecule.
Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 9, 2006 12:03 AM
Sorry Philip repeating your words now.
I just fear the link I've put does not work or that people are not remembering this.
which means sales ought to hit about $1 billion this year.
Posted by Ana at August 22, 2008 03:27 PM
Ana,
Traci's family may not be able to speak out publicly if they were awarded a settlement from Lilly, that could be part of the agreement.
Posted by Stephany at August 22, 2008 05:48 PM
@Puckett
"And as far as Cymbalta goes with respect to fibromyalgia, it doesn't seem to work. No surprise there though."
Yes. I feel kind of guilty. I was in the study for a year and showed no improvement, in spite of high doses of Cymbalta. Then, near the end of the study my office moved to a new building. Within a week I was feeling better. Within a month my tender spots were gone. I tried to share the information with the physician but she said it didn't matter to the study. But still, the study will show that I improved immensely and it had NOTHING to do with the drug and everything to do with my environment.
Posted by Gwenny at August 26, 2008 09:38 AM
My GP doc put me on Cymbalta (using samples, he's such a sweet heart) when I reported heavier than normal depression. Started out on lowest dose, then went up to 60. I had trouble regulating my body temperature, and got a stubborn case of TMJ. My doc listened and I went back down to the lowest dose, then I went off it, period. On it for a total of 2 months. Glad I got off of it. Turned out that the medicine I had been taking for asthma/allergies - Singulair- had recently been connected to depression in some patients. I quit the Singulair too, and have been much, much happier. I didn't tell my allergist, I just stopped taking it. It's my body, and I have to live with the consequences of taking or not taking a or any drug! Thanks for printing the stuff about Cymbalta!
Posted by deannandme at August 31, 2008 05:48 PM
Gwenny, you said:
"I'm currently without any medical treatment and I think I'm doing a heck of a lot better on my own than I ever did in thirty years of them "helping" me."
Took the words--the exact words, right down to the number of years--right outta my mouth.
deannandme,
I stopped taking all asthma meds. The side effects were worse than the illness. The stuff we talk about here is definitely not limited to psychotropics.
Sherry
Posted by Sherry at August 31, 2008 07:19 PM
My brother took Cymbalta for peripheral neuropathy (foot pain) beginning April 2007...He felt by Christmas 2007 that the medicine was not "doing him any good.".. He commented to a fellow at work that he was "just gonna' quit taking the stuff." He committed suicide (gunshot to the head) 3 weeks later, Jan '08. He was loved by all and gave us no warning this could happen. ELI LILLY, I HATE YOU FOR THIS!
Posted by kathy at September 4, 2008 11:57 AM
I just read Kathy's comments. My heart breaks for you. My 19 yr old son was on Cymbalta, samples were given July 2006, he saw his pdoc Aug 2006 and then again during Christmas 2006. He told his doc that he took his meds 4-5 times/week. On Feb 21 Andy took his life. He was a leader on campus, a RA, a kind and compassionate kid. The days preceding his death were normal, ordinary. He took a test on Monday, took comprehensive notes at class on Wednesday - logged off his computer at 10:03 Wed evening, by 10:30 he missed his first cell phone call. He was dead. I blame cymbalta. We think he went into a psychotic state and killed himself. Was his death out of character? Absolutely.
Posted by andy's mom at September 7, 2008 06:27 PM
Andy's mom,
I'm very sorry for your son.
You are suffering a lot.
This is not a psychotic state. It has been already said that the drug-induced suicidal ideation suddenly appears for no reason.
I had this feeling while tapering off Effexor. I ca tell you that you're living your life and all of a sudden the suicidal ideation appears even if you have a wonderful environment and your life is fine.
I'm deeply sorry for your lost.
Posted by Ana at September 8, 2008 12:24 AM
In March of 2006, Lilly released a very structured press release about a study they had tha showed that Cymbalta was beneficial for anxiety patients, along with, remarkably, that terrible pain and cognitive dysfunction one experiences who has anxiety. Testimonials about Cymbalta in the press release were offered by the studie's lead author, which at that time the second testimonial came from Lilly's Medical Advisor. A few days later, they presented the same study twice at a national anxiety convention, and claimed the same remarkable benefits with Cymbalta.
Lilly fractured federal law with the press releases and presentations, as Lilly did not file a NDA for an anxiety indication until May of that year. So they misbranded cymbalta as they did some off-label promotion.
Of course, anything stated orally or written about Cymbalta by the remunerated ones failed to state with concern the adverse events of the drug post-marketing, such as suicidal ideation and actual suicides occuring with those who were or are taking cymbalta. It appears Eli Lilly behaves the same way, regardless of what drug they are harming others with at any given period of time.
Dan Abshear
Posted by Dan at September 27, 2008 08:22 PM
I'm amazed how little physicians know about SSRIs withdrawal.
Here we have two young people who committed suicide:
Posted by: kathy at September 4, 2008 11:57 AM
Posted by: andy's mom at September 7, 2008 06:27 PM
Still the Pharmas, FDA, MHRA and all keep on denying withdrawal problems.
The list of SSRIs and SNRIs withdrawal symptoms seems to mean nothing and all testimonials on the Web are useless.
Not even suicides are enough to bring the problem to public attention?
I really don't understand to say the least.
Posted by Ana at December 6, 2008 09:34 AM
I was on 20 then 40 then 60 mg of cymbalta for about 5 months. I had been on other SSRIs forever and nothing ever worked. The initial 20 mg did nothing, so my therapist increased it to 40. I started getting more depressed than ever on that dose. I couldn't get out of bed in the morning - almost lost my job. I told my therapist that I was hoping to get hit by a car, so she upped it to 60. I took that for about 3 weeks but then people close to me started commenting on my drastic change and how I was like a walking corpse - no emotion whatever except overwhelming dread. The last time I saw the therapist I was a hysterical crying mess and she said that the drug should be working by now and my hysterics were uncalled for and that I needed to be in the hospital (she got that part right even though I didn't go). So, that was the last time I saw her or took another Cymbalta pill. Then the withdrawal symptoms started - I was hallucunating and stumbling all around and unable to sleep and forgetting 15 - 20 minutes of what just happened. The worst thing is that I started to formulate a suicide plan - not just "I wish I was dead" to "maybe I can get a lot of heroin and shoot it all at once and just go out in peace". That was just a thought for a few weeks but then I started searching for a drug source and actually bought some syringes from the pharmacy. The past weekend I told someone about my plan and I was put into contact with someone who will work with me to stop this from happening. I work in a fairly high-level job and right before I started taking the cymbalta I got a 10K raise in the middle of a recession. That's how far down that stuff took me - stay away. No one is immune. BTW - I sent this therapist a letter telling her that I was NOT going to see her again and to send me a final bill. I have not heard from her and it's been 2 months. I think that it's true that the ego of some of these people is so huge that they can't imagine makng a mistake. Her mistake almost killed me.
Posted by cathy at July 6, 2009 10:30 AM