mg12: Cymbalta / duloxetine

March 14, 2018

I started anti-depressents about 15 years ago in college as I was experiencing headaches, lightheadedness and dizzyness in the afternoons. I was told I was suffering from anxiety and was prescribed zoloft then swtiched to lexapro and finally duloxetine (cymbalta). I realy wish I had never started them! I am not trying to taper as I am tiered of the side effects and have been emptying pellets for approx. 1 month so I cna slowly taper the dose.

I finally got down to approx 7.5 mg and then stopped all together this week and I was feeling gret but since stopping completly I feel awful. Very irritable/annoyed and massive headache and 'dream like' feeling. I went back on pills today (7.5mg) but I really wanted to stop completly as I am not even sure the initial diagnosis was correct.

Any advice is apppreciated.

March 15, 2018

Hello, mg12 and welcome to SA.

When did you start the Cymbalta and at what dosage? How long were you off completely before you reinstated at 7.5mg?

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The one-month taper was too fast and has caused the withdrawal symptoms you are experiencing. At Surviving Antidepressants, it is recommended that a person taper by no more than 10% of their current dose with at least a four week hold in-between decreases. The 10% taper recommendation is a harm reduction approach to going off psychiatric drugs. Some people may have to taper at a more conservative rate as they are sensitive to even the smallest drops.

What is Withdrawal Syndrome?
Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

Tips for tapering off Cymbalta (duloxetine)

Reinstatement of a very small dose of the original drug is the only known way to help alleviate withdrawal syndrome. The 7.5mg you reinstated would be too much because your brain will have

already made some adaptations since the time you stopped completely . You might find that a small increase of 1-2mg may be enough to reduce the withdrawal symptoms and that's what I would suggest. Please Keep Notes on Paper so we can see if reinstatement is working. You will need to give it at least a week on the new dose. It takes about 4 days for a dose change to get to full state in the blood and a bit longer for it to register in the brain. The idea of updosing/reinstating is not to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms completely but to bring them to a level that you can live with. If after 1 week you are still experiencing unbearable symptoms you could increase by another 1mg. Please remember that these drugs are strong. These may seem like very small amounts, but it may be all that your brain needs.

These drugs are strong and when updosing/reinstating it is better to start with a small amount and increase if the symptoms remain unbearable. If you take too much it may be too much for your brain and can cause you to become unstable and sometimes it can be hard to regain stability after this happens.

Techniques to make non-standard doses:

Using a digital scale to measure doses.

Making a liquid from a tablet or capsules . + Using an oral syringe and other tapering techniques].

How to cut up tablets or pills.

I suggest you read Post #1 of this topic. About reinstating and stabilizing to reduce withdrawal symptoms

Please let us know how you are doing.