Posted by Bill LL on March 16, 2005, at 9:20:05
In reply to cymbalta, posted by liliths on March 16, 2005, at 6:42:48
So far it's my favorite. Prozac was great, but it was a little too activating for me (made me jittery). Wellbutrin also made me jittery.
Celexa and it's newer version, Lexapro, were both great. Lexapro (60 mg) gave me complete relief from my major depression, and about 70% relief from anxiety. But I still had ADD symptoms. My side effects were sexual and daytime tiredness.
So I added Strattera which worked reasonably well for my attention, but I still had the 2 side effects. At this point, despite the 2 side effects, I was feeling better than I ever had felt.
But just to see if I could improve things even more, I switched to Cymbalta (60 mg) a few months a go, and dropped both Lexapro and Strattera.
I am in fact doing better on just the Cymbalta. It effects both serotonin and norepinephrine and I think that it's the norepinephrine effect that helps with ADD. In addition, my daytime tiredness is much better. Unfortunately, the sexual side effects are still there, but I'm not certain that Cymbalta is completely responsible.
Shortly after switching to Cymbalta, my doc made a blood pressure medication change and put me on a calcium channel blocker (Norvasc). It's possible that the Norvasc is contributing to sexual side effects. My bp had originally gone up with the Strattera, so it appears that norepinephrine is responsible.
Don't be concerned with "high" dosages. Just 1 mg of one drug could be a "higher" dose than 100 mg of a different drug. I think that 60 mg is the starting dose for Cymbalta for people who are switching from a relatively high dose of a different AD. For someone starting on their first AD, 30 mg might be good to start with. I think that a lot of people take 90 or 120 mg Cymbalta. Maybe more than that. It just depends on how long one has been on a drug. One generally has to eventually raise the dose.
As for weight gain. That's hit or miss with any of these drugs. The ones that seem to cause weight gain the most are Remeron and Paxil in that order. Most of the other AD's can cause weight gain, but don't in most people.
> anyone taking cymbalta? I'm really curious about it
>
> any info on efficacy and side effects would be greatly appreciated... particularly weight related or sexual but I'd like to be informed of any side effects anyone is experiencing
>
> curious about dosage as well.. from the few threads I've read, it seems to need to be higher than recommended and I do seem to have a high tolerance
>
> thanks,
> liliths
poster:Bill LL
thread:471587
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050312/msgs/471614.html