It can be taken permanently for a chronic condition, but with these kinds of medications, everyone responds differently, so it’s not unusual for someone to have side effects that cause them to want to discontinue the medication. Or if it’s not as effective as they hoped, they may want to try a different, but similar medication that shouldn’t be taken at the same time. Others may take Cymbalta for depression and when their depression improves, they may want to stop it to see if they can maintain remission without it or need to switch medications.

But the most common thing I hear of is people who don’t tolerate the medication and want to stop it, only to find they can’t stop it immediately or as quickly as they want to, or the act of stopping it causes even worse side effects.

I don’t want to scare anyone off taking it. Everyone is different and also has a different tolerance to risk, but it’s something I’d want someone to tell me while I was considering my options, just like my NP told me, not to scare me, but to make sure I had all the information.

I’d want to know I before I took something if it would be difficult to stop taking immediately if I wanted to. I don’t like having to give up that much control, and I’m not comfortable with that risk because of my underlying condition. And historically, discontinuation syndrome from neuromodulators/antidepressants hasn’t gotten much recognition from doctors in the past; some minimize it or repeat what they’ve been taught, which is that it takes a few weeks to taper (which is true for some, but not everyone), minimize it, or even don’t believe it’s true. I think that’s less common now…at least since that one study came out a few years ago showing how high the rate of discontinuation syndrome is, but even that study was done by a physician if I recall correctly because they had personal experience and wanted to know more.

If you’ve been diagnosed with B12 deficiency, has the neuropathy not improved as your B12 level has gone up?