Posted by barbaracat on March 18, 2005, at 1:59:55
In reply to Re: cymbalta » Bill LL, posted by liliths on March 16, 2005, at 10:38:28
I stated my weird response to Cymbalta earlier in this board, but here goes again. I had a wild ride on a starting dose of 30mg Cymbalta. Outright psychedelic experiences complete with colors and melting watches, high anxiety and muscle spasms and nausea. But a definite lift almost immediately from a severe bipolar mixed-states depression. The NE kicks in right away with a bang.
I titrated on down to keep the antidepressant effect while reducing the unpleasant ones. I got down to 3 pellets and still had a positive response! I am not an isolated case. There are others on this board who found that 1 mg and less were still too much. I believe this sensitivity may apply particularly to bipolars who are sensitive to SSRIs in general. But Cymbalta seems to be a different sort of animal, never experienced anything quite like it and I've been on them all. I'm still having an excellent response now up to a whole 10 pellets. It's helping with anxiety at this slightly higher dose. My blood pressure initially increased but now has gone down to a slightly low bp. After 5 weeks on it, this med continues to surprise me.
So, if there's a moral to this story, it's that there may be no standard starting dose, some meds act totally different at different strengths. For bipolars, be real careful, but at teensy doses this one could be the ideal med for us poor AD challenged folks.
poster:barbaracat
thread:471587
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050317/msgs/472352.html