Mixture of Cymbalta and valium

[helper984]

The MD put a friend on 60mg of cymbalta 3 days ago.  He mixes it with valium.  He is slurring words, falling over, and just out of it.  I didn;t think the cymbalta would have that effect immediately since it should take awhile to enter into his system., I was on 60 mg of cymbalta, as well with xanax and although it made me tired I was not in the shape he is in.  What do you think could be the problem?  Is it too high of a dose to begin with?  Is he taking too many miligrams of valium?  I believe he takes 10mg pills.  The first day he took 3 valiums with the cymbalta.  Today I suggested he take only one valium.  Although somewhat better, he is still out of it.  He had been taking valium for quite awhile with paxil.  He stopped the paxil the day he started cymbalta.  I am very concerned because he doesn't appear to be behaving in a normal way in spite of the meds. Since he was already used to taking the valum, I am concerned that the combo with cymbalta is the problem.  Perhaps the dosage is too high?  What should we do until we can get to the MD?

[Paxiled]

This person needs to talk to his doctor, and really should be seeing a psychiatrist, not a regular doc.  That is a lot of valium if your friend is just popping them randomly, but there's another factor:  Paxil withdrawal.  If your friend stopped the Paxil abruptly, switching to another med, especially one of a different class such as Cymbalta, won't necessarily do anything about the withdrawal from the previous med.  And Paxil gives more people a rough time upon stopping than any other antidepressant other than Effexor (and, ahem, Cymbalta).  Your friend should have been tapered off the Paxil, and maybe was, but if not, and even if your friend was, there's a lot going on now possibly, too much for us to say which is which.

[M4Y0U]

30mg is the starting dose then after a couple of weeks they move on to 60mg. As for you input of being tired on Cymbalta well it's because you might be more sensitive to serotonin which will makes you feel tired instead of norepinephrine which will make you feel energized. Yeah one size doesn't fit all as you can see it's really complicated.

M4

[helper984]

Thanks for your input.  I, too, have been on Cymbalta 60mg but it made me tired instead of energized.  As you said one size does not fit all.  I just think that maybe he was put on too high of a dosage with cymbalta.  Perhaps at 30 mg.  I don't understand because he is used to taking that many valium.  Unless it is not agreeing with the norepinephrine part of the med.  Thanks for helping.  I appreciate it.

[M4Y0U]

The Valium-Cymbalta combo is safe and is something I used in the past. He's behavioral changes are due to the new norepinephrine reuptake inhibition that he is getting with Cymbalta that he wasn't getting with Paxil. Of course taking 3 Valiums will make most people act like you described as ''He is slurring words, falling over, and just out of it.'' but it's not due to the Cymbalta of at least I really don't think so. Cymbalta is supposed to give you energy due to it's stronger norepinephrine reuptake inhibition effect than the serotonin's one.

Valium will reduce the number of receptors for norepinephrine but it's not a problem here. The problem is most likely the abuse of Valium while switching to a new medication. Many people use Cymbalta with Valium of whatever benzo with success. But anyway we must know that everyone is different and one size doesn't fit all when talking about drugs. See what happens after 1 month he's been on Cymbalta and ask him to use the Valium more adequately eg as intended by his doctor. If you are really worried then I would check with his MD.

M4