cymbalta for pain?

[bladder]

Has anyone tried this? It is next on my list of recommendations from the pain clinic.

[mary124]

I am taking cymbalta for pain, and for the first time in years I can honestly say that I have no pain whatsoever on most days. I take this and neurontin.

[glass1/2full]

Cymbalta for Pain

I took it for 3.5 weeks: when we took me to 60 mg instead of 30 I had distorted thinking (constant thoughts of death) and we had to take me off (doctor and I work closely together). It did not do much for IC pain but did WONDERS for irritability and emotions and helped diffuse pain for fibromyalgia. Good luck

[eyeliner128]

Reply:

Cymbalta really helped me when I was first diagnosed. I took it for about 2 years (age 13-14) with great success but then stopped it because it had stopped working for me, still not sure why. I would definitely recommend it though.


Molly

[Emytwo]

I'm taking Cymbalta at a raised dose, when my IC symptoms began. I strongly believe that it is blocking most of my pain.

If you don't react well to Cymbalta, it's my understanding that all of the SSRI's will work to block some of or all of the pain.

I have been reading that Elavil (one of the older, tricyclic depression meds) is working to eliviate IC pain. I've read that on many of the IC sites that I have visited.
Emy

[rosechild12]

I agree with Emytwo. I was on cymbalta for pain and it didn't seem to help me. I think it did help my moods be more stable however but in terms of pain I'm not sure it worked very well. My doctor just switched my to elavil he thinks this works better for IC pain the cymbalta he said seems to work better for all over pain. We will see how well the elavil works and he said if it doesn't seem to work as well as the cymbalta did then we will switch back.

Hope that helps

Meds I take on a regular basis:

Elmiron 2/twice a day
Elavil 1/once a day
Low Dose Valium 1/once a day
Atarax 1/once a day
MS Contin 15mg twice a day
Tramadol for breakthrough pain
Sanctura XR once a day
Percocet for breakthrough pain
Pyridium as needed
Orthro Evra patch continuously
Lydocaine gel as needed

Diagnosed 4/2011 by a wonderful doctor but have had disease my whole life. This disease got progressively worse after my last child which was two years ago and have been looking for a good treatment plan ever since.
Had Cystoscopy done 9/2011 found severe IC
Had Hydrodistension done at same time
Taking this disease one day at a time

[bladder]

Cymbalta....

I am at 90 mg. Anxiety is worse than ever. Vivid dreams...feel odd all the time so dont know how long i will take it

[ICNDonna]

I think it's important that you contact your doctor about your reaction. There may be a substitute you can try.


Donna

[naturegal]

It helped me a lot at only 30 mg, then dropped to 20 mg due to side effects, still helped, then stopped working for everything; both depression and IC pain. If you start taking it, and you are the type that is sensitive to meds, open the capsule, pour out some of the contents and recap it, then take it; this is how to slowly work your way up without starting at a full 20 mg all at once.

[bladder]

going off cymbalta

This stuff has too many nasty side effects for me...nausea, cramping, IBS issues worsened and high/low mood swings. It did help with the pain somewhat and I was doing more. Now I have to wean off and hope I can find yet another drug to be a guinea pig on. I hate, hate, hate IC.

[SandyRN]

I took it...and remember this is MY experience, it might not be yours.

I had to keep upping the dose and upping the dose til I was on a pretty high dosage of it and even then it didn't touch my fibro pain or my IC pain, none of my pain. What it did do was help my panic attacks that started after I almost died in a freak thing that I had to have surgery for....it scared the *%% out of me, literally.

So when I was weaning off, which, btw, took me 10 months, I was having massive panic attacks, much worse than they were before I started it. I was MEAN, and NASTY to my family, I hated everyone and everything.

I would twitch out of the blue, I felt awful, felt sick, and was in major withdrawl. Withdrawl from that stuff is as bad if not worse than getting off oxycontin (worse, in my case) and I've heard it compared to coming off heroin.

I never knew this until the very end of getting off of it, but there are TONS of websites devoted strictly to Cymbalta withdrawl.

Personally, I will NEVER take another SSRI for anything. I currently take Xanax AS NEEDED for panic attacks...that way I don't have to take those drugs all the time, only once in a while. Xanax is addicting, too, but it isn't as hard to stop as Cymbalta, at least not for me.

It's totally a personal decision. Many people have great outcomes with Cymbalta, some don't. I'm one that didn't....and I wish I had because I still need help with pain, after all these years of trying to get it right I've just decided I have to live with it even tho I am on several narcotic meds that take some of the edge off, I am never, ever pain free.

Just do your research as you should with ANY drug that you are about to start. You may be surprised what you find out.

Good luck,
Sandy

[mary124]

Hey Sandy great to hear from you!

All: I was on cymbalta for 6 months (started in June 2011); had to get off of it about 2 weeks ago. Doctors were finally listening to me--one of the side effects is itching. Every year between May and June I get some kind of skin condition with this I itch and then I start to scratch till I have these awful sores--they usually go away in a month or so but not this time. Like I said one of the doctors (I think it was my cardio doc as if my arm gets infected there is a possibility that it could get infected) anyway I called my pain doctors office and they said it might be and to get off of it for a few days. So I did my itching stopped within a few days and even though my arms are still bad sores are healing. I haven't heard from pain docs office (even though I left a couple of messages with them). Doing fine- pain wise and all.

[SandyRN]

Hey Mary Nice to see you, too!

ITCHING..I left out the part about itching...had forgotten about it til I read Mary's post. I would get these spells out of the blue where I'd itch, from my scalp (which drove me nuts) to my toes. I went to the doctor thinking I must have had some scalp condition but he looked and said it was perfectly normal.

Thankfully I had the hydroxyzine for my IC and since it's an antihistamine it did help, slightly, with the itching.

But, it was so bad that it would literally make me kinda nutty. I went through all sorts of dandruff shampoos, scalp treatments, etc....creams, lotions powders for my skin.....nothing helped.

I guess that it was the Cymbalta. I still get this feeling where my skin feels scalded...kind of like a bad sunburn, and I'd have that with the itch at times, too...but now I think the scalded feeling is not related to the cymbalta, but one of my other multitude of problems.

Us IC'ers have so many related conditions it's crazy!!!


PS!! For any of you stopping the Cymbalta or thinking of stopping it, please, please, go VERY slowly. It's best to wean off of it with a doctor's supervision, but if you're just going to do it yourself, SLOWER is better. Like I said in another post, it took me 10 months. It's dangerous to stop mes like this cold turkey.