My partner is currently on Duloxotine , it was prescribed to her as a nerve block . She suffered an injury to her shoulder and thn had reconstructive surgery . Since then she has suffered pain and nerve damage trouble . She takes 60mg daily and to be honest is not very effective . she too suffers with similar side effects such as malaise etc and struggles to get physicaly motivated and spends much time in bed . She has been taking it for nearly two years now . Some of her other side affects are that she has really bad nightmares and does not feel fully rested after 12 hours sleep .
THe real problem lies in the withdrawel of it . She hopes to come of it but from a dose of 60mg it can take several months to fully stop taking it and the side effects can be quite bad . The doses available are very limited , ie 30mg and 60mg so a steady step down is hard and because they are capsule type it is nion impossible to reduce doses manualy , ie cutting in half , unless you open the capsule and physicaly remove x amount of the balls inside .
As a side note , I take Paraxotine for anxiety , it is part of the same family of drugs and yes both are anti-depressants . I am on the prior as you may know acts as a nerve block which is part of the anxiety rush . I suffer a different set of side affects as everyone will suffer different reactions out of the long list . I was moved to duloxatine for several months but then changed back when it was found not to be as affective for anxiety .
One thing I do notice is that if I forget to take my paroxatine and my partner finds the same with her duloxotine is that if you forget to take it for a day or two ( due to the daily grind ) as I take mine in the morning and she takes hers as night , is that you will feel light headed , and your eyes are not in sync with head movement , a bit like being slightly drunk !
My sympathies are with you on the side affects but what ever you do , do NOT just stop taking them , the side affects can be very brutal .
And as for the question of "thoughts of harming yourself" , that is really more aimed at people with mental health issues or depression for which they are prescribed to help with , but as a side note , some medication can contribute to irrational thoughts , PRo-Zac was one that had bad press in the 90's and early 00's due to the suicide rate of young teens prescribed it .
Kind regards Sam
