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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by linkadge on July 16, 2005, at 1:14:28
According to this site, cymbalta was only approved for 9 weeks use ? What is that going to do ?
http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/depression/a/cymbalta2.htm
Linadge
Posted by med_empowered on July 16, 2005, at 3:12:29
In reply to cymbalta - only approved for 9 weeks ?, posted by linkadge on July 16, 2005, at 1:14:28
most antidepressants are only tested for a couple months...the initial trials usually run 8 or 9 weeks. Post-marketing studies and studies for "off-label" uses sometimes run longer and report better results, but often arent terribly rigorous. Antipsychotics used for control of bipolar mania are also often approved on the strength of short-term studies (6 weeks seems pretty standard) comparing them to things like haloperidol, lithium, and placebo. Again, after the drugs are approved, more long-term data usually becomes available, although that data is often kind of skewed since many post-marketing studies have small sample sizes (and they usually arent random), often lack a very good double-blind design, are plagued by investigator bias and are often funded by drug companies. But, hey...its what we have to work with. Its also worth noting that the cymbalta study gained some notoriety for some suicides...apparently, at least one young woman, a college-age bible school teacher or something, ended up hanging herself after she landed in the arm of the study that gave full-dose cymbalta to "normal" subjects to test tolerability and addictive potential. Strange.
Posted by linkadge on July 16, 2005, at 3:17:18
In reply to Re: cymbalta - only approved for 9 weeks ?, posted by med_empowered on July 16, 2005, at 3:12:29
Yeah, I heard about that study. I heard that they tried to pin the suicide on an "underlying condition" even though she had no history of one.
(or something like this)There is a significant withdrawl. When in the hospital, I met a guy who was prescribed prozac for some pain syndrome. He had discontinued it becuase of side effects and developed suicidal depression (even though he had no history of one prior to taking prozac for pain)
Linkadge
Posted by Phillipa on July 16, 2005, at 18:43:16
In reply to Re: cymbalta - only approved for 9 weeks ?, posted by linkadge on July 16, 2005, at 3:17:18
Link, I took cymbalta at 60mg when it first came out. It didn't touch me in a negative or positive way. I took it for over 90days. Another reason to me that AD's don't work for me. It's got to be me. Fondly, Phillipa
Posted by emme on July 18, 2005, at 8:28:38
In reply to Re: cymbalta - only approved for 9 weeks ?, posted by med_empowered on July 16, 2005, at 3:12:29
Was that the college student who had not told the investigators that she'd had some depression before and for whom the test protocol called for a very high dose? Or am I remembering this incorrectly?
em
Posted by linkadge on July 18, 2005, at 20:04:48
In reply to Re: cymbalta - only approved for 9 weeks ?, posted by emme on July 18, 2005, at 8:28:38
This could be. But I was under the impression that it was not so "clear cut" that she did have depression prior to the drug, and that this was what some of the controversy was about.
Linkadge
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