Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 475449

Shown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.

 

Re: cymbalta » concerned partner

Posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 14:17:05

In reply to cymbalta, posted by concerned partner on February 14, 2005, at 10:25:51

Hi, I'm not able to post to Newbie so hopefully you'll get this. Your poor guy - I hope my experience will help a little. You might run across my other posts about Cymbalta on this board. I had and am having a particularly unusual and interesting experience with it. First of all, I cannot believe that any informed psychiatrist would give Cymbalta to a bipolar at such a high dose. Perhaps for unipolar vegetative depression, but Cymbalta is extremely activating and destabling for bipolars, even starting at 1mg. It has a potent norepinephrine component that goes to work almost immediately, unlike any other SNRIs. The full effect takes a few weeks to kick in, but oh my, that stuff is like rocket fuel. Bipolars simply don't need that. But... it can be a wonderful drug all the same.

I am bipolar and was given a starting dose of 30mg. I was having psychedelic effects on it, anxiety, gastric upset, muscle cramps and insomnia. It pushed me into an agitated mixed state. But I did notice an antidepressant quality worth pursuing anyway and wondered what a small dose would do. Over a week I dropped down to 3 pellets out of the capsule and experienced a profound lift in my severe depression with no side effects.

I'm now at 6 weeks on 13 pellets and doing great along with 600mg lithium. A few others on this board are having similar good response on a dozen pellets or so. Time will tell if this response lasts, but I'm convinced that for right now it is a great med. At high doses, it is hell. I can't speak for everyone, but I suspect this is true for bipolars. At tiny doses it is a different med altogther, especially for bipolars.

My words of experience on this med is this: it is very potent, far too potent for bipolars on the standard dose and it's good you recognized this. In the meantime, coming off any SSRI type med is hell. I'd suggest some strong benzo therapy to calm the agitation he surely must be feeling. Ambien works great for sleep but not if I'm highly agitated. On those occasions, I'll take Restoril or Valium or something to help unwind the muscles along with it. Sometimes Seroquel is given with good results but I didn't like it.

Trazodone can be helpful, but it's strongly serotonergic and you've got to be careful when adding it to another serotonin med. It also makes you feel permanently groggy.

My choice would be Ambien with a muscle relaxing benzo taken throughout the day and at bedtime.

He could try taking a few pellets of Cymbalta to see if he has a similar response to mine. I promise you, he will get a response and it may be more healthy than continuing to taper off a high dose. Right now he needs soothing meds and a good talking to his pdoc and Lilly drug reps who ought to know better. - BarbaraCat


> My husband was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. He was put on Trileptal and Cymbalta. He is having problems with the Cymbalta, especially severe insomnia. He has been on the Cymbalta since December. The insomnia just started a couple of weeks ago. The doctors want to give him Halcion or Ambien to help, but we don't see that as a solution. Also, the Ambien didn't work. We are considering requesting the psychiatrist to let him go off of the Cymbalta. Has anyone else had problems with insomnia from Cymbalta? Also, what are the side effects of going off of the Cymbalta (withdrawal symptoms)? I would appreciate any advice, as we are very frustrated and don't know what to do.

 

Re: cymbalta » barbaracat

Posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 14:40:20

In reply to Re: cymbalta » concerned partner, posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 14:17:05

> Hi, I'm not able to post to Newbie so hopefully you'll get this. Your poor guy - I hope my experience will help a little. You might run across my other posts about Cymbalta on this board. I had and am having a particularly unusual and interesting experience with it. First of all, I cannot believe that any informed psychiatrist would give Cymbalta to a bipolar at such a high dose. Perhaps for unipolar vegetative depression, but Cymbalta is extremely activating and destabling for bipolars, even starting at 1mg...
>
> I am bipolar and was given a starting dose of 30mg. I was having psychedelic effects on it, anxiety, gastric upset, muscle cramps and insomnia. It pushed me into an agitated mixed state. But I did notice an antidepressant quality worth pursuing anyway and wondered what a small dose would do. Over a week I dropped down to 3 pellets out of the capsule and experienced a profound lift in my severe depression with no side effects...


FWIW: I am Bipolar Type 2 and I take Cymbalta with Trileptal and feel good. It was doing a great job on my anxiety, depression and insomnia at 60mg, but I dropped down to 40mg cause my blood pressure was up a little. Not quite as effective at this lower dose, but still way better than I was feeling on Trileptal alone.

 

Re: cymbalta » Minnie-Haha

Posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 15:01:44

In reply to Re: cymbalta » barbaracat, posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 14:40:20

Glad to hear it! Please give me your experience with Trileptal. It's the one MS I've never been on. Having good luck with lithium but am concerned about long term use. Have you been on others? I found Depakote waaaaay too sedating and depressing and Topamax too edgy, Lamictal gave me the rash. So, I'm interested in your response.


>
> FWIW: I am Bipolar Type 2 and I take Cymbalta with Trileptal and feel good. It was doing a great job on my anxiety, depression and insomnia at 60mg, but I dropped down to 40mg cause my blood pressure was up a little. Not quite as effective at this lower dose, but still way better than I was feeling on Trileptal alone.
>

 

Message for Concerned Partner » Minnie-Haha

Posted by partlycloudy on March 25, 2005, at 15:10:19

In reply to Re: cymbalta » barbaracat, posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 14:40:20

I posted this on the Newbie board:

http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/newbs/20041227/msgs/475475.html

take good care,
pc

 

Re: cymbalta

Posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 15:14:52

In reply to Re: cymbalta » Minnie-Haha, posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 15:01:44

> Glad to hear it! Please give me your experience with Trileptal. It's the one MS I've never been on. Having good luck with lithium but am concerned about long term use. Have you been on others? I found Depakote waaaaay too sedating and depressing and Topamax too edgy, Lamictal gave me the rash. So, I'm interested in your response.

My first MS was Depakote. I was on it a couple years and it worked well (in conjunction with Effexor) but I gained 30 pounds, so I switched to Trileptal. I slowly started losing weight, but I started having menstrual problems, which I think were at least partially a result of all the weight gain. I think I may have been on the verge of that Metabolic X thing, or whatever it's called. Anyway, after a while, the Effexor lost it's ability to keep away depression, so I switched to Wellbutrin. That worked OK for a while, but I eventually went on a drug holiday.

When I needed to get back on therapy, I tried Lamictal, which seemed to be working for me though I wasn't yet up to a therapeutic dose, but I too got a rash. Back to Trileptal.

Depression is more a problem for me than mania. Trileptal alone does nothing for depression, for me anyway, except for keeping me from feeling absolutely suicidal. Once I added the Cymbalta, that was the key. Since I had to lower it, because of a slightly elevated blood pressure, I am now augmenting with 150mg Wellbutrin XL in the a.m., and it seems to be doing the job so far.

 

Re: Thanks partlycloudy! (nm)

Posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 15:17:36

In reply to Message for Concerned Partner » Minnie-Haha, posted by partlycloudy on March 25, 2005, at 15:10:19

 

Re: cymbalta » Minnie-Haha

Posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 18:21:36

In reply to Re: cymbalta, posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 15:14:52

Have you ever tried good old lithium? It's the one I keep coming back to, the only one that provides real mood stabilizing. I've been on it for about 3 years and it's been the single most effective med for me.

I too tend towards depression and not nearly enough lovely hypomanias. Without lithium I reel into mixed states no matter what other MS I'm on. At any rate, I appear to need whatever it does and 600mg is not so high a dose that I'm all that concerned about long term.

It has worsened my hypothyroidism, however, but that's under control with increasing my thyroid meds.


>
> My first MS was Depakote. I was on it a couple years and it worked well (in conjunction with Effexor) but I gained 30 pounds, so I switched to Trileptal. I slowly started losing weight, but I started having menstrual problems, which I think were at least partially a result of all the weight gain. I think I may have been on the verge of that Metabolic X thing, or whatever it's called. Anyway, after a while, the Effexor lost it's ability to keep away depression, so I switched to Wellbutrin. That worked OK for a while, but I eventually went on a drug holiday.
>
> When I needed to get back on therapy, I tried Lamictal, which seemed to be working for me though I wasn't yet up to a therapeutic dose, but I too got a rash. Back to Trileptal.
>
> Depression is more a problem for me than mania. Trileptal alone does nothing for depression, for me anyway, except for keeping me from feeling absolutely suicidal. Once I added the Cymbalta, that was the key. Since I had to lower it, because of a slightly elevated blood pressure, I am now augmenting with 150mg Wellbutrin XL in the a.m., and it seems to be doing the job so far.
>

 

Re: cymbalta

Posted by Phillipa on March 25, 2005, at 18:57:02

In reply to Re: cymbalta » Minnie-Haha, posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 18:21:36

I wonder why I didn't feel anything from 60mg of cymbalta, when I've never been able to take AD's before? The only one was Luvox. Fondly, Phillipa

 

Re: cymbalta » barbaracat

Posted by Minnie-Haha on March 25, 2005, at 22:09:12

In reply to Re: cymbalta » Minnie-Haha, posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 18:21:36

> Have you ever tried good old lithium? It's the one I keep coming back to, the only one that provides real mood stabilizing. I've been on it for about 3 years and it's been the single most effective med for me...

Nope. But I'm open to trying it if I ever have to get off Trileptal for some reason (knock wood).


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