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Eddie: Cymbalta Questions


Eddie

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Thank you for your help! I can't believe how awful my symptoms are just trying to get off Cymbalta. Not even my pharmacist was of help.
It helped a bit to open capsules and remove some beads. I realized I needed to be more accurate so I found a compounding pharmacy which was willing to take my capsules and make 15 & 3 mg capsules (they could not make 2 mg) to try out.
When I got them home last night I opened a 3 mg capsule to see how it compares to the amount I had been removing. I noted that the beads had been crushed, weighed and redistributed into capsules.
I thought the beads aren't supposed to be crushed. Is this cause for concern? Should I go back to the compounding pharmacist?
Appreciate your feedback!

Edited by scallywag
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  • Moderator Emeritus

Eddie -- Welcome to Surviving Antidepressants (SA)
 
I've moved your post from the Tips for tapering off Cymbalta topic to the Introductions Forum so that more people will see your question.  This is YOUR introduction topic -- the place for you to ask questions, record symptoms, share your progress, and connect with other members of the SA community.
 
Would you add a medication history signature that includes the drugs, doses, and dates of any dose changes (up, down, start, or "jump off")? Here are links to 

Instructions on creating a signature.

Signature control settings page.

 

Your question about the compounded capsules. The pharmacist probably used enteric coated capsules that protect the beads from stomach acid.  Call the pharmacy and ask. 
 
If you want make your own taper doses and don't like the idea of counting the beads, you could weigh the beads yourself. You can read more about that and see comments about different scales in this topic:
Using a digital scale to measure doses.

I've been counting Cymbalta beads for almost a year. I started the bead counting when I was taking 20 mg, and am now down to 5.1 mg. You can see my taper history at a link in my signature.
 
What is your current dose? How are you thinking of decreasing?  We suggest reductions of no more than 10% once per month.
Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know.
Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.

I'm glad you found us early in your taper process. Please let us know how things are going.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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Thank you so much! It looks like the capsules used for the 15mg doses are two coloured while the 3mg doses were what I guess to be regular white capsules. That means the majority of the dose is in enteric coated capsules (I will check). If the capsules are crushed, though, doesn't that impact the rate of "release" despite the enteric coated capsule?

 

I am trying out 24 mg now. (After having eyeballed removing some beads for a few weeks - horrible! I just came across your site a few days ago) This morning was rough but the afternoon was better. If 9 mg of the 24 are not in interim capsules and the beads are crushed, is this an issue and should I ask the pharmacist to make a new batch without crushing the beads?

Appreciate your feedback!

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Both of the capsules probably have enteric coating. Call the pharmacy to confirm. They probably used different colours so that you can distinguish between the two doses.

 

If the 3 mg capsules aren't enteric take them back and insist that the pharmacist re-encapsulare the contents at no cost to you. That's a major error on their part.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.
1997-1999 Effexor; 2002-2005 Effexor XR 37.5 mg linear taper, dropping same #beads/week with bad results

Cymbalta 60 mg 2012 - 2015; 2016: 20 mg to 7 mg exact doses and dates in this post; 2017: 6.3 mg to  0.0 mg  Aug. 12; details here


scallywag's Introduction
Online spreadsheet for dose taper calculations and nz11's THE WORKS spreadsheet

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