Connect
← Return to Member Neuropathy Journey Stories: What's Yours?
Discussion
Member Neuropathy Journey Stories: What's Yours?
Neuropathy | Last Active: Oct 17 5:52am | Replies (571)Comment receiving replies
I have been taking Gabapentin for several months now for severe neuropathy. Prior to,that I took lyrica. I have had numbers and tingling in my feet for many years. The pain, burning and electric shocks to my toes have increased dramatically over the last two years. On Monday my neurologist put me on Cymbalta. I took it for three days and haven't slept in two. The Cymbalta has dramatically increased my RLS. I read where this is one of the side effects. I take 0.5mg of klonopin for RLS but it did not cover the augmentation. My question is have others had this particular side effect from Cymbalta and how did they handle it. Also, has anyone else found good results from other meds similar to Cymbalta? Thanks for any and all input. Cathy
Replies to "I have been taking Gabapentin for several months now for severe neuropathy. Prior to,that I took..."
Hi Cathy, I took Cymbalta for about a year (+). My doctor told me to take at night because it causes drowsiness. It ended up being the opposite for me, which he then said does happen with a small percentage of people. So I switched to taking it in the morning. I felt like it did take the edge off the pain but at the time had no idea I had SFN and decided to go off Cymbalta. Overall I just didn’t like how it made me feel (can’t really pin it down to something specific but maybe just that I felt emotionally/mentally numb). To answer your question about RLS, I never put two and two together but in hindsight I did have RLS more so then. Fast forward, I have been diagnosed with SFN/AN and my neurologist has prescribed Amitriptyline. We talked about many other options (lyrica, gabapentin, etc) but I’m pretty sensitive to drugs, so we decided to give amitriptyline a try. I started on a low dose and am gradually working my way up. With each increase, I notice slight improvements.
I hope you find something that works well for you. Take care.
Connect
Good afternoon @mcd123, To answer your first question, I have been taken Cymbalta for GAD, high anxiety for 2 years now. I tapered off Nortryptilene before starting Cymbalta. Although it was great for support healthy sleep, it didn't do as much for the anxiety which was causing significantly more pain. That's what anxiety does and I needed help in the mornings. I replaced the evening Nortryptilene with a 2:1 CBD/THC tincture of medical cannabis. It is working well for me so far.
Oh....and I also tapered off part of my Gabapentin dosage from 1200 mg to 600 mg.
May you be healthy and whole.