Posted by Racer on July 19, 2005, at 12:37:26
In reply to Anyone helped by 30mg Cymbalta?, posted by kerria on July 19, 2005, at 10:15:44
> What side effects are there? Is 30mg a big dose. Probably my dr wouldn't have given me a large dose for my wt- i was weighed today and she knows i'm just 98lbs.Weight isn't necessarily relevant to dosage, actually, which has more to do with how you metabolise the medication. To find that out, you probably have to take it, since everyone is different.
30mg is a pretty standard starting dose, with 60mg considered average, and 90 to 120mg still within the therapeutic range for some people. There are, I think, 20mg capsules available, but I'm not sure about that. For what it's worth, I'm taking 60mg, and like the stuff. It's helped me with arthritis pain, and with depression.
When you say that you don't respond well to "this class of drugs", what are you referring to? If you mean "anti-depressants," bear in mind that there are several major classes of anti-depressants, and that Cymbalta really doesn't fall neatly into any of them. It's a fairly novel molecule, with a balanced action inhibiting the reuptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine. Just the fact that its action is different from other anti-depressants might make it worth trying.
As for side effects, it can cause sedation and amotivation, some GI effects during the adjustment phase. For the first few weeks I was on it, I experienced anorgasmia, but I was also so depressed that I didn't really have much interest, so it might have been that... When I first started taking it, I lost some weight, although weight gain is usually an emergent side effect, in my experience, with ADs. Now, nearly 10 months later, I've gained about 40 pounds, but most or all of that is due to nutritional restoration from Anorexia Nervosa. At times, when I've been relapsing in my behavior, I've sworn that it's the drugs that have kept me from losing the weight I've gained, but my nutritional counselor tells me that it's more likely metabolic changes happening in response to the progress I've made. Mostly, though, I think it seems to be pretty darned weight neutral. Someone else who doesn't have the eating disorder to muddy the waters can probably give a better assessment than I.
I hope that helps, and good luck.
poster:Racer
thread:530071
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/530099.html