Posted by Dr. Vijoy on October 26, 2005, at 22:33:39
In reply to Re: Cymbalta withdrawal, posted by redgold on October 26, 2005, at 20:38:36
Hello,
I was reading the last couple of posts and I can understand what you guys are going through (read the whole thread, pretty informative). You know what's terrible about the lack of sexual desire? You have it when youre depressed, and you have it on the meds. Definitely not a win-win situation. Also, somebody mentioned the semen that comes out with urination... yes, it is retrograde ejaculation... basically the time before when you may have had sex or masturbated, some semen went the wrong way and into the urinary bladder... so that now when youre peeing there is something at the end of your urine stream ... that lost semen! There you are, I was wondering where you guys went!!! How embarrasing I know, so how to avoid the problem... no sex and masturbation in the first place. Now that is probably impossible so what to do; unfortunately there is nothing to do, except stop the meds and it will go away but then, things may worsen with the mood.
It is really a roller coaster of an issue, the withdrawl is tough, and most likely you will be on and off the meds forever; my only recommendation is if you can find someone who will perform ECT for you a few times it is definitely better than these meds.
I dont know what else to say Im going through the same thing myself and it hurts to see this sort of thing especially while going through it yourself. My solution im trying for myself? Well I know that I need the meds because im depressed otherwise, but i cant stand being on max dose meds. So im starting cymbalta back up at 20mg once daily , to move up to no more than 30 mg once daily. This for 3 months followed by 2 week cut back from 30 to 20, then 1.5 month break, and back again. I am also going to combine with the lowest dosage of Adderall twice daily to augment the therapy and bring back the sexual desire which i long for so much. Now the addition of Adderall to SSRI/SNRI Rx is experimental , however, being done in the UK... there they are using Selegeline (I forget the trade name) which is an antiparkinsonism drug but has an active metabolite which is essentially Adderall...
To make a long story short, the treatment of depression is still evolving but I think the doctors in UK may have it figured out more than we do here.
Whatever I mentioned here is my opinion and should not be used in real life without the consult of your physician.
Ive gone on long enough. And if youre feeling anger, depression, tearful after abruptly stopping Cymbalta, keep in mind these are signs of major depression and that you need to be observed by a loved one for the 2-4 weeks you go through this, otherwise go back to your doctor and have him try something different. And if your think Cymbalta is the only drug to have these side effects, I guarantee you that almost all the effective meds seem to have the same side effects such as Effexor and Paxil and Prozac, etc.
Take care,
Dr. Vijoy
poster:Dr. Vijoy
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20051018/msgs/572268.html