Has anyone tried anti-depressant medication for neuropathic pain?

One thing that has helped me tremendously and I’m not advocating this I’m just expressing what has helped me out more than anything is my dog. After my boys moved out I got one and then 17+ years ago I got neuropathy. My dog is now my family and gives me a resin to get out of bed. I have to feed them, I’m out of bed, someone at she lets me know, I’m out of bed. When I’m at my lowest of lows she is by my side loving me and comforting me. She is the reason I’ve not given up. Just an idea.
I sure how you find answers that helps. By the way your husband seems to be a wonderful man. It’s almost worse to be a caregiver.

I should check my spelling eh?

Nortryptiline and gabapentin for me. It has taken almost all the pain away...Thank God!

I developed neuropathy after chemo treatment for breast cancer. Over the 10 yrs I have suffered from this condition, it seems to have gotten worse. I do not take anything for it . I don't like taking medication anyway but now on prednisone for PMR. Should I ask my rheumatologist for some medication for the discomfort of this condition? What do you think.

Hello @glp1340122, Welcome to Connect. I'm sorry to hear you developed neuropathy after your chemo treatments. I see that you are also dealing with PMR for the double whammy. My PMR is in remission but I've had neuropathy for 20+ years but only the numbness and some tingling with no real pain. You mentioned you just have discomfort. Medications don't help with the numbness but they can address the neuropathy pain symptoms. Do you have pain from the neuropathy?

Honestly, no I do not have pain from neuropathy, just a lot of discomfort especially when sitting or lying-in down. When I walk my dog I have no discomfort from that condition. I am now taking 3 mg of prednisone but honestly do not think I will be able to do without the drug which the doc is reducing every 30 days until I am done. Did you get PMR after taking the covid vaccine? I think that is when I took the last booster and I am not planing on getting another one at this time.

My two occurrences of PMR were both before COVID and I didn't haven any flares as a result of the vaccine like some others have reported. Both times with PMR I was started at 20mg prednisone. The first time took 3-1/2 years to taper off, the second time 6 years later took me 1/1-2 years to taper off. I was fortunate to have a rheumatologist that provided great advice and suggestions when tapering off, specifically to listen to my body and pain levels when tapering down and to taper slower at smaller amounts. Have you seen this discussion on tapering?

-- PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-dosages/

Thank you so much for your comment - I will look at the managing of my doses of prednisone . It's hard to really know how much the drug is doing/or not doing. I started at 15 mg and after a few days felt really better, I could reach down and tie my shoes, I had more flexibility than I had before the diagnoses. Now, I wake up in the am. and feel sore around my shoulder which I do have a small tear in the rotary (I have been told). It is doubtful that I could stop this med when I am down to -0- mg; Incidentally I think I have been on this drug for 4 or 5 months now.

How long were you on 20 mg of prednisone? Having been on 15 mg for I believe 8 wks, then 7 mg (can't recall for how long) but now tapering off every 30 days from 4 mg to 3 and mid-Dec will be 2 mg. I am not sure I want to continue stopping the 3 mg cuz I do have pain around my shoulders and joints. It's hard for me to judge just how much I have. I do admit that taking the 15 mg was much better for me. The side effect was that my skin seemed so think and I would slightly knock my leg and I would have a bleed there, even on my arms. It is scary to take a new med and have this happen. I take 0.12 mg of hydrochloride and fosomax one day a week (70 mg) and calcium for my bones but I have always shyed away from taking pills unless absolutely necessary.

I think the first time in 2007 I started at 20mg for two weeks and then down to 15 for two weeks. After that I started tapering down by 2.5 every two weeks until I started having too much pain and I slowed the taper to 1 mg every two weeks or a month if I was struggling with pain. It took 3-1/2 years to taper completely off my first time. Then 6 years after that the PMR returned but I had made some lifestyle changes with more exercise and eating healthier with less sugar and inflammatory foods and was able to taper off in 1-1/2 years.

What helped me was keeping a daily pain and dosage log. If my pain was more than a 2 on my scale, I didn't taper and would sometimes bump my dose up for a week by half of what it was the previous time so I wasn't going all the way back to the previous dose and would still be down a little in dosage.