Has anyone had experience using cymbalta for pain relief?

Always Hopeful,
I'm glad you started a new topic dedicated to Cymbalta (generic name: duloxetine). It has been discussed in various discussions throughout Connect by a number of members, like @sandytoes14 @kdubois @jimhd @oldnana @kathyv @lauriedr @jenapower @janie56 to name a few.

Always Hopeful, while we wait for others to join the conversation, can you tell us a bit more about why you are asking about Cymbalta? What type of pain are you managing? Do you already take Cymbalta or has it been recently suggested to you?

@AlwaysHopeful
I take 60 mg of Cymbalta daily for pain relief of fibromyalgia. Most of the time I find it reduces the pain to a manageable amount.
Along with fibro, I have Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) arthritis and degenerative disc disease (DDD) to name a few aliments. A plus for me is that Cymbalta also reduces anxiety. I'm looking forward to your response to Colleen Young's questions and getting to know more about you.

I am taking cymbalta & not sure if it helps with fibromyalgia or not- had a major flare up yesterday with the cold damp weather & wondering if weather change flares are common for fibro folks-

@zinniagal Welcome to Mayo Connect! I love your screen name 🙂
Having had fibro for many years I find that the cold damp weather or any change of weather trigger a flare. It would be terrific if you could share your story with us to get to know you better. When were you diagnosed with fibromyalgia? Have you taken other meds for it?

25 yrs ago I started having what I called my "aching & fatigue attacks" We had moved onto 5 acres & every minute I wasn't taking care of our son I spent working on landscaping. I also had serious depression issues during the winter here in Minnesota. My dr at Mayo said I "most likely" had fibro though the trigger points are not consistent for me- (seem to be present one minute & then absent the next) nor have I been able to identify more than a few of them at a time. Stress & overdoing physical activity - and in more recent years a change to cold, wet weather trigger flare ups. Hot showers & the aqua massage ( the higher the pressure the better) at DAHLC offer the most relief. A flare feels like I have a flu but the aching is different - it feels like it's coming from my bones & radiating out. And I am exhausted- usually lasts a cple days. 

Hi @AlwaysHopeful, the following info should be useful and might help others on this thread, too.

Whether or not Cymbalta (duloxetine) helps a person depends on several factors, including how the person's body metabolizes the medication.

Most medications are metabolized by the body's cytochrome P450 liver enzyme system. This system contains a ton of different enzymes that are basically genes. Whether or not your body metabolizes a medication properly can depend on three things...

1. Whether or not you are taking a medication that inhibits/induces an enzyme that your body uses to metabolize another medication (or even the same medication). (For example, duloxetine is a substrate of the enzymes CYP1A2 and CYP2D6, which means that these two enzymes metabolize duloxetine in your body. But if you take a medication that inhibits (i.e., slows down) those two enzymes, it will cause you to too-slowly metabolize duloxetine, which means that you will not receive the intended effects. Interestingly, duloxetine actually inhibits CYP2D6. Many medications inhibit P450 enzymes; fewer medications induce them.)

2. Whether or not you have P450 liver enzyme polymorphisms, which means that you posses an enzyme or enzymes that are mutated and make you, organically, metabolize some medications too slowly or too quickly. These polymorphisms are not rare. After years of taking duloxetine, Mayo performed pharmacogenomic testing on me and figured out that I was born with CYP1A2 and CYP2D6 polymorphisms, which explained why I never received the pain relief effects from taking it. (The official diagnosis for this is called CYP450 Deficiency.)

3. A combination of numbers 1 and 2 above. Because I was also taking other medications that inhibited my CYP2D6 enzyme, it made the above situation even worse.

Unfortunately, most doctors only have very rudimentary knowledge of the P450 system, and they don't know enough about drug-drug interactions via these enzymes to recognize of suspect these issues. If you suspect this may be an issue for you, you may be best off talking to your pharmacist first.

Here's where you can look at substrate, inhibitor, and inducer medication info: http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/it-mmfiles/Pharmacogenomic_Associations_Tables.pdf

@zinniagal weather definitely affects me and the fibro of one of my friends, as well. Spring and autumn aren't always the funnest times of years for us living in western NY.

Hi,
My oncolog recommended Cymbalta to use against depression & anxiety attacks. I have breast cancer stage 4 and it has been metastic for the past 10 months. It works for me and helps me to be myself. If it helps you to relieve pain, much better. Good luck!

I asked for rhis type of testing, but too few of my meds were on their list last fall. Which Mayo site fid your testing?

@vickiekay, It shouldn't matter what type of meds you are taking at any given time because this is important genetic information; your body won't be changing. And as we age, we tend to take more and more medications. Maybe state it this way to your doctor.

I traveled to the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo - Rochester for my pharmacogenomic testing, but OneOme (who does these tests and was founded by Mayo) now has a much larger test-set that your doctor can order online and they mail it to you... you do a gum swab and FedEx it back to them. It only costs $249 and includes 22 genes (whereas the nine tests I had done a year ago were just under $2,900). Hopefully, you live in a state that has certified OneOme. (My state hasn't, so I wasn't legally able to get my doctor in NY to order it, but I was able get this test done by having one of my Mayo doctors do it because he is in a certified state. We're waiting for the results as I write this.)

(There are other private companies out there who also do these tests, but my PCP prefers that I have this testing done at a place like Mayo because of their reputation and quality.)

And this test set does include testing the genes involved with metabolizing Cymbalta. Go to http://www.OneOme.com for info for you and your doctor.

I suggest doing these tests if possible, and I believe that everyone should have them done. These polymorphisms are not rare.

I was sick for 12 years due to P450 polymorphisms and taking medications that I wasn't able to properly-metabolize. Going to Mayo and having these tests done prevented me from going into drug-induced liver failure and saved my life.