Hope your all doing fine with the weather and staying cozy!
I wanted to get some feed back from you all on Lyrica vs Cymbalta, I was recently diagnosed with Fibro and was put on Gabapentin,Cymbalta and Flexerol. In the last few months my Doctor has increased both medications. Gabapentin to 2700 mg and Cymbalta to 60 mg. I am still having alot of pain and my Doctor would like to switch me to Lyrica to see if it helps. Is this dosage of Gabapentin really high? I was wondering if anyone on here has had the same situation as I do. I am aware this is just the beginning and there could possibly be other conditions that may present themselves over time. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated!
Hello! I have not taken Lyrica or Cymbalta so I can't give you personal experience on those medications. With Fibro, the tricky thing is everyone responds differently. What works for one person won't necessarily work the same way for another person. It is a lot of trial and error, and persistence to keep at it. Also I have found the biggest help for me has been to make lifestyle changes. I try to keep my stress as low as possible and get enough sleep. I practice relaxation techniques frequently and I do physical therapy exercises which help. Regarding Gabapentin, I have seen people on here with doses that high. I take Gabapentin but I am at 900mg day. For me, it doesn't help with the pain but it does help with the Fibro Fog so it is worth it. Some people have the opposite effect and feel the Gabapentin worsens the fog. Also, I just want to mention you can put in "Lyrica" and "Cymbalta" in the search box on the main discussion page and pull up other discussions on these meds. Of course, hopefully more people here will respond as well. Please keep us updated on how you are doing. Hugs!!
I started on Cymbalta due to my Osteoarthritis. Did not touch my pain. Moved to Gabapentin and reached max dose (like you) very quickly and that did nothing for my pain. Then switched to Lyrica. I hit my max dose pretty quickly. Pain wasn’t as bad, but my OA wasn’t the best. The side effects kicked in very quickly. They included loss of appitite with major weight gain, swelling in hands and feet, major cognitive issues and fluid retention (that was cause of weight gain).
Like Auburnm stated everyone reacts different. You have to find the right combo. Next I will be on the new drug called Savella.
Along with all of the drugs I have been on I’ve been on Amitriptyline. Amitriptyline helps me sleep thru the night.
Wish you the best coping with the pain of Fibro. If you need any help, let me know. You know where to find me. hahahah.
I've only been on Cymbalta so I can tell you about my experience with that. I've been on Cymbalta for several years but I'm on the maximum dose of 120 mg a day. I do very well on it. My psychiatrist put me on it at a lower dose to start for my depression with the hope I would also find it helping my Fibro and with the gradual increase it works for both. I have far less flairs then I was having. I've had no problems with side effects. I do know from reading other posts that I'm one of the few that have had success with it. I suggest giving it a while longer as long as you don't find yourself having any sever side effects and maybe talking to your dr about another increase. Also Cymbalta seems to take longer in really get in your system. If I remember right I think I was told it could take up to 2 or maybe 3 months to get the full effect.
The one thing I have learned about it here is that you can NOT just stop taking it. You have to work with your dr and wean off it.
Hello,
I was diagnosed about 4 years ago, after so many test, scans, and sleep study. I take cymbalta 60 mg, and also Gabapentin 900mg.
I have tried Lyrica, and hated it. It made me lose days,I felt like a zombie. So I stopped it, my pain has grown worse.
I have tried, biofeedback, minerals, acupuncture.
I am know waiting to get ketamine infusion next week to help reduce pain.
FM, and the medicine that is suppose to go with it is different for everybody. It might be a great med for you, or it could have a negative effect. If you need it, it’s worth a try…
Best of luck!! Hoping for many pain free days.
Hey there! I was on Cymbalta and tramadol. Was doing good but wanted to be doing great. My docs switched me to Savella and the fatigue is better compared to Cymbalta
I have used all of those drugs. the best thing is to work with your doctor to see what works for you, i have heard that those gaba doses can go very high, i have used it to control grand mal seizures only took 900 mg daily. i could not tolerate higher to help with pain. i dont remember why. it is in the family of anti epelepetic drugs being used also for pain control.Cymbalta is in the anti depressant family of drugs also being used to treat pain. I tried a few of those drugs but i dont do well with any that are anti depressant drugs. good thing i dont suffer from depression. many folks do very well on those drugs.I am starting on lyrica once again on a low dose. i gained too much weight before on a higher dose. so we will see how i do..Flexerol is a muscle relaxer whihc lots of folks also use. it helped me to sleep.well that is all i can tell y0u now from my own experience. i hope you find what works for you. all the best
Hello, FibroGirl. I was diagnosed with fibro in March 2014. Started out taking 30mg Cymbalta once daily with tramadol as needed for pain. It helped at first, but by June I was feeling increased pain. My doctor upped my dose of Cymbalta to 60mg a day. I did fairly well but still had more pain so in September, after much discussion with my PCP, we decided to try the double dose, or 120mg Cymbalta a day. That did the trick for me,along with the tramadol that I take to help when I have painful days. Most days I get by with only taking one 50mg tablet of tramadol in the morning when I take the Cymbalta; I actually take the generic version & it works great. My doctor did not want to put me on Lyrica as most people do gain a lot of weight on it, & I am borderline diabetic & sure don’t need extra weight! Like everyone else here says, we are all different & what works fine for me doesn’t work at all for somebody else. I have not taken Gabapentin. Flexeril does absolutely nothing for me; tizandine works really well for me as a muscle relaxer. Just keep working with your doctor, they have your best interest in mind, and remember if you have concerns about your treatment plan or medication, let your doctor know. It is your plan to treat your health & your doctor would most likely appreciate your input. Having said that, when my PCP & I was discussing my options the 3rd time around last September, she mentioned that I may get more pain relief with Lyrica, but I reminded her that I did not want to gain weight & end up full blown diabetic; she agreed & we increased my Cymbalta to 120mg a day. This is what works for me. Hope you get what works best for you soon!
HUGS from Deb
On Cymbalta I woke up in the middle of the night paranoid and feeling strange...I sat straight up and felt as though I was holding my eyes open as wide as I could...it was crazy it made me act strange. On Lyrica I felt like it deadend my feeling towards thing, I felt nothing...I had no feelings good or bad about things. It was awful too. I totally wigged out on both of these meds. I'm about to start a new one, called Lexipro. Let's hope I don't have strange reactions to this one. Although the pharmacist told me it's in the same group of meds as cymbalta/Lyrica. Has anyone ever had horrible reactions like these?
I've taken both and every other MED YOU can think of for fibromyalgia.nothing worked.I'm not taking any meds at all since I've been seeing my region np Kathleen since 2014.I'm a lot better than when I was seeing a region for 2 years!everyone has to experiment to see what works for them.I'm doing gentle stretching exercises,walking,pacing ,feasting,naps,Motrin and Tylenol when needed.I hope that helps.
I had the same experience with Cymbalta. The first time I tried it my psychiatrist put me on it for mood stabilization and hoped it would help with neurogenic pain issues. My body and mind responded badly to it so after a month of researching lyrica I had only heard bad things I wasn't even trying it and I haven't. So, we went back to the Cymbalta with a different plan of action really really slowly titrating me on it knowing fully well I would have to go through hell to get to the good stuff. And in my case that was exactly my experience. I was on it for one week of ugliness but then it all went away and I was on it with great success with lamictal and gabapentin (Neurontin) for five years then workers comp refused to fill the script and I went cold turkey off the Cymbalta which landed me in the hospital and cost workers comp more than if they had kept me on the meds. I was also on an over the top dose of Cymbalta but it worked for me.
Now I am on Neurontin and viibryd. with prn tramadol and clonzapaem. I also take magnesium. I don't eat sugar or white flour or red meat. I also moved to FL to a warm climate and am doing much better. I appreciate everyone who contributes on this site. I just started listening to free recording of the fibro doctor (rodger murphree) and my lawyer and I are trying to get workers comp to pay for me to consult with him. I have learned more about my issues from him than all the specialist I have seen over the past ten years.
ruth
Hi FibroGirl,
I've only been on Cymbalta so I can tell you about my experience with that. I've been on Cymbalta for several years but I'm on the maximum dose of 120 mg a day. I do very well on it. My psychiatrist put me on it at a lower dose to start for my depression with the hope I would also find it helping my Fibro and with the gradual increase it works for both. I have far less flairs then I was having. I've had no problems with side effects. I do know from reading other posts that I'm one of the few that have had success with it. I suggest giving it a while longer as long as you don't find yourself having any sever side effects and maybe talking to your dr about another increase. Also Cymbalta seems to take longer in really get in your system. If I remember right I think I was told it could take up to 2 or maybe 3 months to get the full effect.
The one thing I have learned about it here is that you can NOT just stop taking it. You have to work with your dr and wean off it.
I take a cocktail of things for my many neurological issues. I find that adding Cymbalta has been most helpful for my Fibromyalgia. I do however, find that if I ever miss a dose, I wake up with screaming dreams. In the dreams I am so mad at someone that I am yelling/screaming at them at the top of my lungs. Otherwise I am a very easy going person by nature. I find this a very odd result of missing a dose. But it happens every time.
As for why a dose is missed. I take so many meds that I sometimes feel over-medicated. I then just pass on a single dose of a thing or two to keep the drugs from getting ahead of me.