“Everybody is different “ is an axiom that is totally true when it comes to peoples’ reactions to medication of any kind. When I first developed chronic pain, almost 15 years ago, the Doctor who diagnosed it, carefully and systematically went through every treatment known to possibly be helpful. When we got to Cymbalta, she titrated the dose very carefully, starting with the smallest and working up to 60 mg a day; that took 2 months. All I can say for my experience with Cymbalta is that it gave me a headache every day, but never helped my pain. I took it because I had a friend who had experienced the “magic bullet“ effect. He said it got rid of every pain he had in his body. That sounded very appealing, But that’s not what happened with me.
I was also tried on Lyrica. Just when I got up to the maximum dose of 150 mg twice a day ( I think), I got terrible pains in my joints and was advised to get off that medication entirely. What did work for me, among other things, was taking Neurontin, the brand name for gabapentin. I had to alternate the dose between 600 a day and 700 a day in doses of 200 mg three times a day, with an extra 100 mg added in every other night.
I arrived at that schedule because I had no side effects at 600 mg a day but if I tried to take 700 mg a day, never mind the recommended 300 mg three times a day, my feet seemed so numb, swollen by edema, that I couldn’t feel the sidewalk under my feet. So on my own, I experimented with taking 600 mg one day in divided doses, and 700 mg the next, by adding an extra 100 mg to the nighttime dose, and it worked! And I’ve been on it ever since.
I tried the generic as soon as it came out but had a horrifying experience. I had asked the pharmacist how long it would take me to know if the generic was as effective as the brand name, and he said five days . After the fifth day, I felt like I was back in hell, meaning, I had no therapeutic benefit at all, and felt like I did before I ever tried anything. As soon as I went back on the brand name, the therapeutic effect returned. It may be that the fillers that that company was using affected how it was dispensed in my body, but I couldn’t take the chance of trying every generic out there, as more began to make the medication, especially since you can never be certain what generic the pharmacy has purchased in any given month and you could be switched around. I couldn’t take that chance. I settled on purchasing the brand name, Neurontin, and paying the up charge for it.