Cymbalta combined with Gabapentin for Neuropathy

Hello @mcolsmt, Welcome to Connect. Sorry to hear that the Gabapentin isn't working to control your neuropathy pain. I only have numbness and some tingling with my neuropathy. Medications don't help with the numbness. You might want to scan through the following related discussions while you wait for members with Gabapentin and Cymbalta experience for neuropathy to respond.

-- Experiences with duloxetine (Cymbalta) for peripheral neuropathy?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/experiences-with-duloxetine-cymbalta-for-pn/
-- Gabepentin vs. Lyrica vs. Cymbalta?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/gabepentin-vs-lyrica-vs-cymbalta/
The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy has a list of the different treatments here - https://www.foundationforpn.org/therapies/. Have you talked with your doctor or neurologist to see if there might be other alternatives?

I take 60mg of Cymbalta twice a day along with my gabapentin and I have been able to cut the gabapentin down. So I would say yes it helps.

In my case Gabapentin stopped working but then adding Cymbalta helped a lot.

I found Cymbalta with Tramacet completely relieved my neuropathy and cervical stenosis pain within a day, but then I started perspiring really heavily and I stopped after about a week. I was unable to tolerate Cymbalta after that because of the sweating, even with minimal dosage. I was prescribed amyltriptaline with pregabalin to try to minic the Cymbalta, but it didn't work very effectively, so I am back on the Tramacet that I have been taking for fifteen years for stenosis pain.
I now have to take quite a lot of Tramacet, and it helps the pain especially at night, but it doesn't touch the numbness, that is now starting in my fingers.
Pregabalin makes me very drowsy and a single dose of 150 mg makes me sleep all night, but I don't trust the medicine for some reason.
I think Cymbalta is probably very effective if perspiration doesn't occur, but it was so heavy for me that I couldn't tolerate it.
I got some hydrocortisone pills from my dentist after a nasty tooth extraction and I was prescribed 3 pills the first day, 2 the second and one on the third. It relieved my tooth pain and all the neuropathy numbness as well.
Unfortunatly, I have been strenuously warned off cortisone by my nerve specialist as well as my general practitioner, so I don't pursue that approach
However, I occasionaly use a whole tube of 1% cortisone cream on both feet and legs up to my knees, and that seems to calm things down when the pain is keeping me awake.
I used to go for an occasional foot massage, and that helped for a while, but the effect is more negative now that the numbness is so sevre.
I am sure that effective medication will come along , thanks to Forums like this.
Keep on Truckin!

@johnbishop

Throw those horrible meds out. I couldn't take Lyrica - cousin of Gabapentin - the fatigue was so overwhelming. I found Alpha Lipoic Acid from a nature store 600 mg once a day in the morning and you can take on an empty stomach with food plus with B complex vitamins stopped all this nonsense. Try it. You don't have anything to lose. I have Source Naturals as my brand name - good brand at a nature store. Believe me - it sells like hotcakes - he rarely has one bottle left. Enjoy the new life again.

@gnocchi I've never taken any pain medications for my neuropathy. Have been taking vitamins and supplements since 2016 to hopefully slow/stop the progression and so far so good. I take na-R-ALA 600 mg twice daily along with most of the ones listed on the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy site - https://www.foundationforpn.org/vitamins-and-supplements-for-nerve-health/