Drugs For Fibromyalgia?
Posted by: Alan in Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs, tags: Drugs, Fibromyalgia
A little background: I have been really sick since the birth of my son (17 months ago) and have seen so many doctors. I was finally recommended to a Rheumatologist who thought my symptoms were Sjogren’s Syndrome. I was also tested for Rheumatoid Arthritis but all tests were normal.
Today I had a check up with the Rheumatologist again and he said he thinks it might be fibromyalgia because I have a family history of it. He wasn’t too confident of that diagnosis though so I’m not sure what to think.
Getting to the point: He wanted to put me on Cymbalta but I tried that before and I can’t handle it so he put me on Lexapro. I was on Lexapro after my son was born for Post Partum Depression. Isn’t that just for mental type depression? I mean it isn’t generally used for physical pain is it? He also put me on a muscle relaxer/pain reliever, Movic (I believe that’s what it’s called) so I could get some sleep at night. Has anybody taken these or similar drugs before to treat fibromyalgia? Did you get any relief at all? He also recommended I start physical therapy for some joint pain? Has anybody found success with that?
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November 30th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis and Fibromyalgia, but no children. First you need to try exercise, reason being that when you exercise you release endorphins, natural pain killers. Likewise exercise makes you tired, so sleeping should not be a problem, although staying asleep might be. You need to exhaust your body physically and then mentally, so read a book, do some puzzles, get your brain to get tired. Now muscle relaxants are just that. When we sleep we go through several phases and we need them because it allows our body to repair itself. If we do not get all the phases of sleep, then we wake up feeling tired.They have me on Valium which I thought was for Depression, seems not. They then put me on Lyrica as soon as it came out and life is pretty good. The normal pain killers do not work with Fibromyalgia and you have to get the right drugs in the right amounts before you will start to feel the beneficial effects. Best of Luck
November 30th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Lexapro is an anti-depressant but sometimes doctors do prescribe them for fibromyalgia. There is actually a drug that works better, but not too many doctors know to prescribe it. It is called Low Dose Naltrexone or LDN. Stanford University is currently conducting a promising trial of the drug in fibromyalgia patients. You can do a search for the information. There are also several yahoo groups for people taking LDN, one specifically for fibromyalgia called LDNforFibro.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Cymbalta is an SNRI antidepressant (works on serotonin and norepinephrine) this combination is recommended for fms
Lexapro is just an SSRI (Serotonin only) it can also be used for FMS when SNRIs can’t be tolerated
ask about SAVELLA its the newest approved SNRI as well as anti seizure medss (LYRICA, NEurontin)
also ask about other combinations like adding Wellbutrin (dopamine and norepinephrine) to teh lexapro
December 1st, 2009 at 2:15 am
I’ve tried everything and I mean everything. Nothing has helped.