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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 15 of 15. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
Posted by ghost on December 29, 2004, at 8:14:05
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
i'm not sure, but i would think/guess from my experience that if your normal tablets are enteric coated, then you've been weaning more than you thought... generally theyre enterically coated so that they'll get absorbed and processed farther along in the digestive tract than the stomach. since you've broken them up (whoa, that's dedication!) and not coated them (capsules dissolve FAST), then your stomach's processed the medication-- this probably means taht you didn't absorb much because your stomach juices probably destroyed most of the medication. (strong stuff.)
also, unless your tablet wasn't a tablet at all-- it was a capsule of powder-- going from 30mg > 5mg isn't very accurate or reliable, so you could have been getting less than you thought to begin with. i've had doctors say that breaking tablets in half is okay for the most part, but going any smaller than a half is generally introducing lots of error into the dose, and not worth it.
not sure if any of this makes sense. but i don't think you have to worry too much. you could try to not take your 5mg doses for a day and see what happens? 5mg is so much smaller than 30 that i'd hope you wouldn't have any more withdrawl effects. but you could always mix it with apple sauce and swallow it-- this is pretty close to what you'd been doing with the capsules since you can't immitate enteric coatings outside of the lab.
good luck. i hope you feel okay. :/
ghost
Posted by Larry Hoover on December 29, 2004, at 8:19:34
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
> Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
The only way that capsules can be "enteric coated" is if the individual little pellets of drug are enteric coated. That means that any method of getting them swallowed without the risk of leaving an annoying pellet or two clinging to the side of your esophagus would be fine. Mash a little bit of banana, and press the pellets into the spoonful of fruit....down the hatch? I don't know, some kind of food that you just swallow would work. Pudding?
Lar
Posted by ghost on December 29, 2004, at 8:30:20
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help » Phillipa, posted by ghost on December 29, 2004, at 8:14:05
i didnt think they made those anymore.
sorry. :/
Posted by Allie Blue on December 29, 2004, at 8:31:55
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
> Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
You can buy empty capsules at health food stores or possibly drug stores and they are very inexpensive. I bought some at Vitamin Cottage.
Posted by Eljakeo25 on December 29, 2004, at 9:31:44
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Allie Blue on December 29, 2004, at 8:31:55
I take Cymbalta and even though I do not "feel" it, I am much less depressed and have less depressive feelings. But Cymbalta is similar to a drug I used to take: Effexor. And getting off of it was the worst withdraw experience ever. (and they give so much crap about stimulant medications jeeeze). What I did was open the capsule and dump out the content onto a clean suface. And every day I would take away one bead, then take the rest. (I know this sounds cumbersome because there seems to be 1000's of beads in the capsule lol) But it worked. It took me awhile. But all I did was take one less bead each day until all I had left to take was one bead. I withdrew off of it just fine, because your tapering so slowly that it works! Thats what worked for me. If you have the time and patience to just take one less bead a day. I am not sure if this is relavent to your post but for anyone wanting to wean off of the effexor or cymbalta without the dreaded withdral..give it a shot..just besure u have enough medication so you can do it this way. I hope I help some out there. Take care. Jake.
Posted by Phillipa on December 29, 2004, at 11:42:56
In reply to Best way I found to wean off of SNRI like effexor., posted by Eljakeo25 on December 29, 2004, at 9:31:44
I had read on aprevious Thread that the "pellets", whatever you call them, are what's enterically coated. But, then, I'm taking someone's word for it that I don't know. I can't call the pdoc, [he wouldn't know anyway]he's away for at least another week, but I guess the Rx, or Cymbalta Web site might have this information. I originally had been up to 60mg for a month and cut to 30mg and then continued. The problem, is I don't want to take any more AD's because they don't seem to work for me, so W/D is not covered by going on another med. I've also been trying Ad's for 8 years. That's a lot of med to get rid of! Oh, for the day when I first took l0mg of Paxil and after 3 months of feeling like I would die it worked and I felt great. Since then nothing works. Thanks Phillipa
Posted by KaraS on December 29, 2004, at 13:18:12
In reply to Re: Best way I found to wean off of SNRI like effexor., posted by Phillipa on December 29, 2004, at 11:42:56
> I had read on aprevious Thread that the "pellets", whatever you call them, are what's enterically coated. But, then, I'm taking someone's word for it that I don't know. I can't call the pdoc, [he wouldn't know anyway]he's away for at least another week, but I guess the Rx, or Cymbalta Web site might have this information. I originally had been up to 60mg for a month and cut to 30mg and then continued. The problem, is I don't want to take any more AD's because they don't seem to work for me, so W/D is not covered by going on another med. I've also been trying Ad's for 8 years. That's a lot of med to get rid of! Oh, for the day when I first took l0mg of Paxil and after 3 months of feeling like I would die it worked and I felt great. Since then nothing works. Thanks Phillipa
Phillipa,
I went off of Effexor by doing what you're asking about. The Effexor also came in enteric coated "pellets". In order to decrease slowly I would open the capsules, estimate the amount I wanted to take and pour the pellets slowly into a plate or bowl (be very careful because they do splatter easily). Then I would just lick up the pellets and down it with some water or other liquid. It worked out very well. Combining it with food, as the others have described, would work also. My Effexor withdrawal was very smooth because I did it slowly. At the very end, when I went off of the stuff completely, I had a couple of bad days (which went away as soon as I introduced a small amount of a longer acting serotonergic.) That worked like a charm.Good luck,
KaraP.S. Wish I had some better advice for you as to what to replace the Cymbalta with... I may be trying an MAOI myself. Have you considered one of those?
Posted by yxibow on December 29, 2004, at 14:19:44
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
> Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
I hate to say it, because it sounds callous, but since I believe you don't have access to a milligram scale.. I sense that you may be prolonging your withdrawal symptoms at 5mg, which is 1/12 or less than 10% of a typical daily dose. At that level, I would drop the whole thing completely, experience the effects for a few days and have your body readjust, rather than raking the coals. I know its a balance between "cold turkey" and sensibility but that level is near placebo and it would seem to just agonize the days longer that the drug is in your system. I'm sorry Cymbalta has not worked for you.
best wishes
Posted by ed_uk on December 29, 2004, at 14:44:50
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by yxibow on December 29, 2004, at 14:19:44
Hi Phillipa,
I got the lovely picture! Did you get my reply?
You could take the pellets with yoghurt, what do you think?
Love Ed x
Posted by Ritch on December 29, 2004, at 17:07:45
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
> Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
I found out from counting the pellets in a 60mg capsule that each pellet is approx. 100 micrograms or .1mg. They are hard to corral and count, but that's what I found.
Posted by banga on December 29, 2004, at 17:22:29
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help » Phillipa, posted by Ritch on December 29, 2004, at 17:07:45
I too have always used yogurt to mix in any meds. And I found that it was those last 10mg that were the hardest to get off. I am way too imprecise and lazy to count out separate spansules, I simply slowly increased how much I was pouring out of each capsule each day.
Posted by Phillipa on December 29, 2004, at 17:37:15
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by banga on December 29, 2004, at 17:22:29
Ed; I got your message. Just E-mailed you. To everyone else, Ed included, I sincerely appreciate your input. Today I wasted some B6 capsules I had and used one. Read the manufacturers info and they called them "pellets", I was'nt sure what to call them and they are enteric coated. I really don't want to try an MAO, at this time. I would like to see if I can tolerate life without any AD once the side effects are over. How long do you think they will last since I'm not replacing it with another AD? Thanks, Phillipa
Posted by Cairo on December 30, 2004, at 18:16:15
In reply to Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help, posted by Phillipa on December 28, 2004, at 20:49:48
I am currently on 5mg Cymbalta. I don't bother with extra capsules. I open the contents onto a piece of paper that is folded and use the tip of my finger to pick up granules, then pop them into my mouth and down with water, being careful not to chew. I use the folded piece of paper as a guide to funnel the granules into the original capsule, separated and clearly marked "to be divided" and repeat the process the next day and the next until all the granules all gone. Not very elegant, I suppose, but works for me. I started at 30mg and decreased by 5 granules per day. I'm happy at 5mg; no nasty side effects, yet more energy, less anxiety, appetite under control and less hypothyroid-like symptoms.
I find that 47 granules = 5mg (using a 20mg capsule).
Cairo
> Have been reducing Cymbalta from 30mg capsules to 5mg currently. Now am out of "capsules", but have plenty of contents. I have been told they are enteric coated. Need to know what to mix them in to continue weaning off this drug without experiencing more severe W/D symptoms than I already am. The electrical shocks, etc. Thanks. Please respond, am out of capsules. Phillipa
Posted by ravenstorm on December 31, 2004, at 11:15:42
In reply to Re: Homemade Cymbalta Capsules Need Help » Phillipa, posted by Cairo on December 30, 2004, at 18:16:15
If you prefer putting the pellets or granules or whatever back in a capsule, healthfood stores sell empty gelatin capusles in all different sizes to make your own pills. There is no medication in the capsule portion so it is not really necessary.
By the way, have you all counted how many pellets are in each sized capsule? If you had I would be curious for future reference to see just how slowly I could get off of it, if I get desperate enough to try it. At this point, I can't bring myself to do it, as paxil withdrawal was horrendous even going extremely slowly with liquid form that I had to WATER DOWN, to go slowly enough.
KEEP GOING SLOW. For me the last 2mg of paxil were the worst and took literally months to get off while watering down the liquid. I tried several times to just stop at 2mg (even adding prozac) and it was a no go: puking, severe akasthia, no sleep etc, it would not pass in a week or two. Going slow was the only way for me.
This is the end of the thread.
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