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Neuropathy: Cymbalta helped my husband. What helped you?
‘Just wanted to put this out there for people who developed neuropathy in feet/legs and fingertips. My husband has been suffering with neuropathy from pan can chemo drugs since his second treatment. They stopped giving him one of the drugs immediately, but the neuropathy persisted. Recently, a doctor told him he could try Cymbalta. She said they aren’t sure why it works, but it does for some patients. If you are on any other antidepressants, you need to wean yourself off of them first. He is seeing improvement in his extremities. We hope it continues. Maybe this will help someone out there who is suffering with chemo induced neuropathy.
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I take Cymbalta but not for the neuropathy that I have and it hasn't worked for me for that at all.
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1 ReactionThe doctor said it works for some people. They aren’t sure why that is or even why it works for some patients.
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1 ReactionI tried gabapentin & it did not help, then I tried Lyrica & got swollen feet, legs & breasts from it. I got Cymbalta prescription by my primary care doctor but have not tried it since I really feel some progress with acupuncture.
My husband had a bad reaction to gabapentin which they said was very unusual. ‘So glad you are seeing some relief with acupuncture. It did not help my husband with the neuropathy, but it’s interesting how different people respond to the same treatments. I wish you well with the acupuncture. It’s great that you don’t have to take a drug to help with it!
I got good response from gabapentin. It was started off at a standard dose of 300mg every eight hours and that was too much causing grogginess. Cutting it back to 200 mg every eight hours was better but after 6-8 weeks would result in disturbing dreams. I dropped the dose down to 100 mg which my care team felt would not ge therapeutic but it turned out at that dose taken every 6 hours instead of eight was just the right amount.
In addition to gabapentin, walking, foot massaging and warm water soaking provided relief. My neuropathy was from 24 cycles with oxaliplatin and the care team felt after 2 years of no improvement it was permanent. At 2.5 years it slowly began to resolve and was completely resolved after 5 years.
Some links regarding neuropathy:
PHYSIOTHERAPY FOR PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7808681/
PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY
MASSAGE THERAPY FOR NEUROPATHY
https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-023-03485-z
STUDY ON TECHNIQUES TO ALLEVIATE CIPN
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36810482/
ACUPUNCTURE FOR PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6476456/
Duloxetine (Cymbalta)
Evidence from preclinical [58, 59] and clinical studies [4] suggests that duloxetine, an antidepressant drug acting as a serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), may be effective in the prevention of CIPN without reducing the antitumor activity of oxaliplatin [49]
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7329798/
https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-353734/v1/a52ab5a9-a8da-4552-b619-a94a48249d6b.pdf?c=1649972592
Lamictal (lamotrigine)
Is used off-label.Reported in the literature it can take 4-6 weeks to be effective for neuropathy.
OINTMENT FOR PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY OF FEET
A few patients mentioned an ointment compound of gabapentin, ketamine and imipramine was helpful. Clinical studies shown there is no significant difference between the test and control groups in using ointments for controlling peripheral neuropathy. A compounding pharmacy can make the Rx.
Thank you so much for all this info! It is so wonderful that your neuropathy got resolved. Way to go!!!