A Massachusetts woman has filed a Cymbalta lawsuit, alleging that she suffered horrible side effects from going off the the drug and that those withdrawal symptoms still persist.

In August 2012, plaintiff Tina F. was prescribed Cymbalta by her physician to treat depression, fibromyalgia and pain. Nearly two years later, after suffering unpleasant side effects of the drug, she began, under the care of her doctor, to wean off Cymbalta, according to the Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuit. 

Tina immediately began experiencing severe zapping sensations in her brain, nausea, headaches, blurry vision, heart palpitations and changes in mood.

In December 2014, Tina and her husband, Charles, filed a Cymbalta lawsuit against drug maker Eli Lilly, accusing the pharmaceutical giant of negligence, failure to warn, product liability, fraud and a loss of consortium.

Cymbalta Lawsuits Allege Painful Withdrawal Symptoms

Cymbalta is an anti-depressant known as a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI).

Cymbalta is FDA-approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia (a chronic pain disorder manifested by body pain and tenderness in the joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues ), chronic muscle or joint pain (such as low back pain and osteoarthritis pain) and pain resulting from nerve damage in people with diabetes, a condition known as diabetic neuropathy.

Tina is one of more than two dozen plaintiffs who have sued Eli Lilly, accusing the company of failing to adequately warn about the likelihood of debilitating withdrawal side effects after discontinuing Cymbalta.

Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms include extreme mood swings, anger, irritability, electric-shock sensations in the body and brain known as “brain zaps,” physical and neurological problems, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, excessive sweating, insomnia, nightmares, diarrhea, suicidal thoughts, involuntary laughing or crying, hypomania, tinnitus and seizures.

Eli Lilly Hid Risks

Some 44.3 percent of Cymbalta patients suffered discontinuation side effects in Lilly’s own clinical trials, according to Tina’s Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuit, citing data from a January 2005 article published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

“Lilly continues to deceive, mislead, and misrepresent to consumers that the rate is approximately 1 percent,” according to Tina’s Cymbalta lawsuit. Additionally she alleges, Lilly’s clinical trials showed that 9.6 percent of Cymbalta users suffered severe withdrawal side effects, “yet nowhere in the label does Lilly inform practitioners and patients of that risk.”

In some cases the withdrawal effects are so severe that patients must continue taking Cymbalta in order to treat their underlying condition, rendering them “prisoners to Cymbalta, and Lilly financially benefits by having a legion of physically dependent, long-term users of Cymbalta.”

Despite the wealth of research on Cymbalta withdrawal, Lilly failed to adequately warn patients and physicians about the risk, Tina further alleges in her Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms lawsuit.

In 2012, Eli Lilly amended its label to add the following precautions addressing stopping Cymbalta, warning that “abrupt or tapered discontinuation in placebo-controlled clinical trials, the following symptoms occurred at one percent or greater and at a significantly higher rate in duloxetine-treated patients compared to those discontinuing from placebo: dizziness, nausea, headache, paresthesia, fatigue, vomiting, irritability, insomnia, diarrhea, anxiety, and hyperhidrosis. . . .”

Cymbalta’s half-life — the time it takes for the concentration of the drug in the body to be reduced by half – is one of the shortest half-lives of any anti-depressants.

Since 2004, the Cymbalta label has stated that the half-life of Cymbalta is approximately 12 hours, compared with Prozac, which has a half-life of seven days. The shorter the half-life, the faster the body eliminates the drug from the system, thus creating a higher risk of withdrawal symptoms.

“Because Cymbalta’s half-life is less than one day and Cymbalta is generally administered once daily, it is possible for users of Cymbalta to experience withdrawal symptoms after simply forgetting to take one dose,” the Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuit states. “This also means that users cannot safely taper off of the drug by taking a capsule every other day.”