Posted by Dr. Vijoy on October 27, 2005, at 14:14:20
In reply to Re: Cymbalta withdrawal, posted by davcuts on October 27, 2005, at 11:25:39
Hey,
Sorry to hear that Cymbalta is aggravating your diabetes, it is always tough to treat psychiatric illness with underlying medical illness. SSRIs in fact can raise blood pressure, heart rate, and therefore complicate hypertension or diabetes. You definitely require close medical supervision while on the psych meds.
I didnt mean to implicate that you may be sexually active or masturbating, I was just stating that for many people who are on Effexor or Cymbalta, the retrograde ejaculation is a problamatic complaint that may be embarrasing to report and therefore is a side effect many physicians may not recognize. I could imagine the embarrasment submitting a urine sample to a lab with semen in it... at least i was embarassed when i had to submit my random urine tests at my previous job and they kept telling me my samples were contaminated. I guess your doctor could be a problem with diabetes, however, SSRIs will definitely make the problem more prominent.
Your list of meds seem to contain a very good bipolar medication Lamictal, a sedative-hypnotic Buspar (buspirone) which is rather useful for sleep, but then youre on 3 other meds incl. Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, and one other which seems to be for seizures and bipolar i forgot what it was... anyways Im sure your doctor knows you best but in my opinion it may be too many meds, at least the last 3 I mentioned I would not use initially. However, polypharmacy is practiced commonly in psychiatry where something like 2 or more drugs are used to treat something where 1 would theoretically work. MY only concern is that youre already on Welbutrin which is atypical SSRI and then youre taking cymbalta which is more of the same. I think your physician should revise your meds especially since youre having problems on them.
My comments are only opinions and should not be taken as real medical advice.
Take care.
Vijoy
poster:Dr. Vijoy
thread:466069
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20051018/msgs/572418.html