Advice about duloxetine side effects

[Sproutly]

My Dr has put me on duloxetine for anxiety. He's only started me on 20mg and I've been on it a week. I take it in the morning but find by lunch time is shattered and want to sleep. Not possible with a small baby. Is this normal? Would I be better off taking it at night? Also I have bad muscle aches, but don't know whether it's the anxiety or meds? Is it known to cause eye pressure too as I'm now experiencing a lot of that? Will these effects pass?

[Tish]

Hi Sproutly.. I was prescribed this drug too for neuropathic pain (joint pain and muscle aches), I was told it would help with my anxiety too. I'm afraid I only lasted 6 days on 30mg because I couldn't handle the side effects for any longer but mine were different to yours. I found I COULDN'T sleep and was only getting 3hrs a night. The nausea and headaches were horrendous and I was completely spaced out all day. In that short time, it did work very well for my pain though. I looked on several forums to see what other peoples experiences were and generally, it sounds really good for anxiety. Therefore, I would give it a bit longer if I were you if the SE's aren't unbearable. My pharmacist told me it would take a few days at least for the SE's to wear off but 6 days without sleep was enough for me!

[Junot]

I'm on Cymbalta 30mg/day since November 1. So far, I've only experienced some nausea (on day 1 and 2). Sleepiness is a common side-effect that usually wears off as you adapt to the drug. Some people, on the contrary, experience insomnia. Eye symptoms are rare and you'd only have to worry if you were a sufferer of an eye condition called ocular hypertension (you'd experience eye pain, blurred vision, red eyes, loss of peripheral vision, etc., but you wouldn't actually feel eye pressure, I think). As to the time of the day at which you take Cymbalta, I think it would make sense to take it at night since it makes you sleepy, but I wouldn't change anything without letting the doctor know beforehand.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Its worth trying it at night as you taper on because it can make you tired for the first few days. It did me. This soon passed though.

I'm less sure about insomnia because its not mentioned a side effect in my leaflet. I remember checking this because I suffered really badly with insomnia when I went on Citalopram years before and this is one of my triggers. I didn't have any issues sleeping on this myself but others, as posted, have.

In terms of the rest, did it start when you started the medication? If yes, then its either a side effect or something already there that has been made temporarily worse by the side effect window.

I found the 30mg phase side effects passed pretty quickly, for me it was far harder to go onto the 60mg.