bbeach: father has duloxetine withdrawal

[bbeach]

My Dad was put on duloxetine (20 mg) about 2 years ago.  The reason for starting duloxetine is after chemo he developed a weird powder sensation on his hands so they put him on duloxetine.  Two years later he still had the powder sensation so he was taken off duloxetine.  We tapered the dosage (with a scale) from 20 mg and when we got down to 12 mg he started hallucinating.  He would only hallucinate on his hands, seeing bubbles and wires on his hands but not seeing it anywhere else including on anyone elses hands.  The Dr said to stop the duloxetine and that there was no need to taper.  I wasn't in agreement to stop like that but we did.  He has been off of it for about 6 weeks and still hallucinating.  Picking at his hands sometimes for hours at the sink.  Some days are better than others.  The Drs want to start him on 5 mg lexapro.  They also mentioned possibly putting him back on duloxetine and also mentioned NAC.  Has anyone heard of this as a withdrawal side effect and any advice?  Thanks.

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @bbeach

 

Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms might be hallucinations. Since your father's hallucinations started when he was in the midst of duloxetine tapering, it's likely that they are from withdrawal. Withdrawal can also cause physical skin sensations or paresthesias.

 

If these withdrawal has caused the hallucinations and maybe skin sensations themselves, reinstating a very small amount of duloxetine might help. Do you have any capsules left? There are tiny beads inside the capsules. Your father might try taking 4 beads to see if that helps diminish the symptoms and sensations. We have seen even this small amount might have at least a slight effect. If it helps a bit, he might slowly increase by single beads weekly to see what the lowest effective dose might be.

 

If this helps your father calm down, he might continue to take the beads daily for a while, then very slowly come off those.

 

The powdery sensation might remain, however, because that sounds like it might have been an adverse effect of the chemo.