A Colorado resident is suing the manufacturer of Cymbalta, Eli Lilly & Co., for omitting serious and important information regarding Cymbalta withdrawal. The Cymbalta lawsuit alleges that Lilly provided inadequate instructions on how to stop using Cymbalta and failed to include adequate warnings about the frequency, severity, and/or duration of symptoms associated with Cymbalta withdrawal.

Plaintiff C. Martin alleges in the Cymbalta lawsuit that she began using the popular antidepressant in February 2012 for depression and back pain and discontinued Cymbalta in October 2014 because she could no longer afford it. Unexpectedly, for Martin and her doctors, she allegedly experienced severe Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms including “brain zaps, suicidal thoughts, leg spasms, insomnia, nausea, cold sweats, hot flashes, headaches, and slurred speech.” 

The Cymbalta lawsuit accuses Lilly of omitting serious medical information regarding Cymbalta withdrawal side effects and neglecting to properly tell its users how to discontinue taking Cymbalta. The lawsuit also accuses Lilly of failing to warn consumers and doctors of the actual risk of serious Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms. 

Cymbalta Withdrawal Problems

Cymbalta is available as a pill (delayed-release capsule) at 20, 30, and 60 mg. Martin’s Cymbalta lawsuit explains that the  instructions state that the user is to swallow the pill whole, limiting the options of tapering off of the medication. Furthermore, Cymbalta has an extremely short half-life (the amount of time it take for the drug concentration in the body to be reduced by half), thus requiring additional medication.

Cymbalta’s half-life is 12 hours; the half-life of Prozac, another Lilly antidepressant, is seven days. Therefore, Cymbalta should be used once a day. The Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuit claims, “it is possible for users of Cymbalta to experience withdrawal symptoms after simply forgetting to take one dose. This also means that users cannot safely taper off of the drug by taking a capsule every other day.”

This begs the question, how could users like Martin be expected to stop using the drug if they need to take it every day at precise dosages? 

In Cymbalta clinical trials, 9.6%-12.2% had severe withdrawal symptoms, with 50% at moderate withdrawals. Other studies show that actually between 50% and 78% of Cymbalta users can experience withdrawal symptoms. However, the drug label claims that Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms are extremely rare, only occurring in 1%-2% of users.

Martin claims that she would not have used Cymbalta had she known the true withdrawal risks that Lilly was allegedly keeping from the public in order to keep Cymbalta profitable. 

When Prozac’s patent expired in 2001, risking the financial growth of Lilly, Lilly sought to introduce Cymbalta to the market. It was rejected by the FDA, according to Martin’s Cymbalta withdrawal  lawsuit, “due to certain violations of good manufacturing practices and the risk of liver toxicity apparent in the drug’s safety profile.” Cymbalta was later approved, with added warnings, to treat major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and fibromyalgia. 

The lack of adequate instructions on how to stop using Cymbalta and the severity of the allegedly hidden withdrawal side effects has made Lilly the defendant in several Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuits and Cymbalta class action lawsuits. The Cymbalta lawsuits accuse Lilly of hiding serious and dangerous Cymbalta risks and making an extreme profit ($18 billion between 2004 and 2011) instead of being honest. 

 This Cymbalta Withdrawal Lawsuit is Martin v. Eli Lilly and Co., Case No. 1:14-cv-02800 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. 

Join a Free Cymbalta Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or a loved one took Cymbalta and suffered one or more side effects caused by Cymbalta withdrawal, you may have a legal claim.