Just started taking this med. I wanted to switch the Nortriptyline which seemed to not help anymore. That took a few months to come off. Started Duloxetine 20mg but only every other day to ease any impending side effects. Honestly do not feel any different and have a mild headache all day- so as of today started the 20mg and will take it daily. It also seems to have affected my sleep. I was sleeping well on the Ami/Nort but this seems to have the opposite effect, so instead of taking in the evening, I now take it in the morning. Since I am on school summer break, it is much more manageable to deal with these side effects. Can’t imagine teaching all day and dealing with the effects of insomnia and the mild headache. But knowing that these meds take time, I am being patient.
I still don’t know if it was a good idea or not to start this. I am on Emgality and finally after the initial 3 months of a rocky, iffy experience, it seems to really help me function again. Since I didn’t feel the Nortriptyline was helping anymore, I wanted to switch it with another daily preventative and so started on a search which led me to try Duloxetine. I struggle with feeling calm and I’ve read positive things from other folks, so I’m hoping that it will help me.
My neuro suggested taking duloxetine in the morning b/c it is associated with problems sleeping. I started on a 20 mg dose for one week, then up to 40 mg daily. Similar to what @springerspirit mentioned, duloxetine has not so far eliminated dizziness symptoms (it’s only been 3 weeks!), but my capacity for dealing with what symptoms remain is much improved. I also feel like the cognitive dysfunction is much reduced, which is particularly important to me.
If you aren’t taking melatonin, you might try a small dose (3 mgs) at night to see if it helps with sleep. Before duloxetine, I took melatonin b/c it’s part of the recommended supplements (I think it’s a serotonin precursor) and didn’t feel that it helped me sleep. However, I feel it more now that I’m also taking duloxetine – about 45 minutes after taking the melatonin, I feel relaxed and look forward to getting into bed to read and just letting go of the day. The Get Sleepy podcast also helps, lol!