Posted by SLS on May 21, 2010, at 16:13:07
In reply to Re: Cymbalta Withdrawal, posted by Elanor Roosevelt on May 21, 2010, at 6:29:43
> I'm in week 2.5 of no Cymbalta
> How much longer must I endure this?
I imagine you feel that you have already invested 2.5 weeks of time and endured much pain towards discontinuing Cymbalta such that you would not want to restart it. Who would want to reintroduce this drug if the discontinuation syndrome will end in a few more days? Unfortunately, discontinuation syndromes are variable and difficult to predict. In the past, I have tapered SRIs and BZDs as slowly as was necessary to prevent withdrawal symptoms from becoming too intense. How did you go about tapering the dosage of Cymbalta?
I get the impression that once withdrawal symptoms are allowed to fully emerge due to tapering too rapidly, they are more likely to persist and grow in intensity. Are these symptoms decreasing in magnitude, or are they about the same or even getting worse?
You might restart Cymbalta and find the lowest dosage that will prevent the withdrawal symptoms. From there, you can taper more gradually. You will need to use fractions of pills. I find that you don't have to be so exacting in dividing the contents of pills. I usually just estimate the amount. I will then wait until withdrawal symptoms begin to reappear before taking my next dose. In doing so, I believe that I am tapering as quickly as my system will allow. An alternative approach is to use Prozac as a substitute for Cymbalta and then taper the Prozac. Prozac is usually easier to discontinue, in part because it has such a long half-life. Some people use Benadryl to reduce the intensity of symptoms. I never bothered to research why it works, but it does. It might be due to its ability to inhibit the reuptake of serotonin. I have an interest in knowing if anticonvulsants can reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms. I have not found any research indicating that they can. They seem to help with alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal. Perhaps glutamatergic pathways are overactive during withdrawal. Anticonvulsants would be relatively easy to discontinue..
Perhaps 49er can offer some suggestions. I will probably disagree with him, but the methods he advocates will probably work. They just take a long time.
- ScottThe measure of achievement lies not in how high the mountain,
but in how hard the climb.The measure of success lies only in how high one feels he must
climb to get there.
poster:SLS
thread:948148
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100514/msgs/948193.html