Duloxetine 120 mg for foot neuropathy

[Stephanie389]

Hi Everyone!   I was started on duloxetine 60 mg for idiopathic foot neuropathy or pins and needles feelings in my feet about 1.5years ago.   After 6 months with no relief my neurologist upped the dosage to 120 mg per day.  After 6 months at the 120 mg and no impact to the pins and needles feelings, I asked him to taper me off of duloxetine.  The schedule provided was a 6 week taper.  The first 4 weeks went okay.  I had some nausea, dizziness and insomnia but overall not bad. When I got to the 5th week, I was supposed to take 60 mg every other day.  On the days that I didn’t take duloxetine, I noticed a significant increase in the pins and needles feeling in my feet.  My neurologist said this was an indication that duloxetine was working and started me back on 120 mg per day.  I have now read that tingling in the hands or feet can be a withdrawal symptom.   How does one that is taking duloxetine for neuropathy know which it is while tapering off of the drug?   I am now skeptical of this doctor since he doesn’t seem to know much about withdrawal difficulties.  I would like to get off of duloxetine as I have had many side effects such as fatigue, general malaise, sexual dysfunction and extreme weight gain.  The weight gain has been so bad that my primary care doctor has me on Ozempic now.  Thanks!  Stephanie 

[Erimus]

Hello, and welcome to Surviving Antidepressants. We are a peer support forum to assist in tapering off psychiatric drugs safely, or recovering from psychiatric drug withdrawal.

 

This topic is for anything relating to you, and any questions you have. Please do not start another topic.

 

We recommend tapering by no more than 10% of your CURRENT dose each month, to limit withdrawal symptoms. E.g. 10mg --> 9mg --> 8.1mg --> 7.29mg

 

All the answers you are looking for regarding tapering and antidepressant withdrawal are on this site. Please search around and continue to read as much as you can manage. Use the site search function to search for specific words or phrases, such as drugs or symptoms.

 

Here are a few of the most useful links:

 

Micro tapering

 

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?

 

We only recommend two supplements. Omega 3 Fish Oil and Magnesium. Both should be introduced separately and increased slowly.

 

Firstly, please read the thread on Tips for tapering off duloxetine (Cymbalta) if you haven't already. Duloxetine is slightly different in the sense that it does not come in a liquid form, and cannot be compounded into a liquid. The method for tapering involves slowly reducing the number of beads you take. You would need to open 5-10 capsules, and note down the number of beads in each one. Then produce an average number of beads per 120mg.

 

Now that you have been back on 120mg since 23rd Oct last year, it would be a good point to begin a more gradual taper. Do you feel the same each day? No extra symptoms that you might attribute to withdrawal?

 

The reason you felt so unusual was due to taking different doses every day. Duloxetine has an extremely short half-life of ~12 hours, so you were sending yourself into withdrawal every other day.

 

16 hours ago, Stephanie389 said:

How does one that is taking duloxetine for neuropathy know which it is while tapering off of the drug?

If you taper safely and slowly, with a consistent dose each day, you shouldn't experience such fluctuations in the neuropathy symptoms. The increase in tingling was likely due to skipping doses.

 

Regards

Erimus

[Stephanie389]

Thanks Erimus!  No new symptoms at 120 mg.  I don’t feel any relief from the neuropathy that doctors are now telling me is related to type 2 diabetes.  I definitely felt an increase on the days I was not taking any duloxetine.  It just seems like my neurologist should know these things?  No one mentioned a slow taper or how hard it might be to stop the meditation when they prescribed it for me.  

[Erimus]

9 hours ago, Stephanie389 said:

 I don’t feel any relief from the neuropathy that doctors are now telling me is related to type 2 diabetes.

That is a common symptom of diabetes. It's very important that you get your blood sugar levels under control, it can cause all sorts of unpleasant symptoms.

 

9 hours ago, Stephanie389 said:

No one mentioned a slow taper or how hard it might be to stop the meditation when they prescribed it for me.

Unfortunately this is often the case. Most of us would never have taken the medication if we knew what would happen to us. Try to think of the fact that you have the right information to safely taper off.