Six plaintiffs filed a Cymbalta lawsuit in April, accusing drug manufacturer Eli Lilly (Lilly) of failing to warn consumers and the medical community of the extreme negative side effects that come when users attempt to stop using the popular antidepressant drug.

Cymbalta withdrawal side effects have caused many individuals and groups of individuals to file Cymbalta lawsuits due to the severity of the symptoms and their duration.

About Cymbalta

Cymbalta is an antidepressant that has been commonly prescribed  to treat depression and certain other conditions. The pill comes in 20, 30, and 60 mg doses. Now, when a patient begins to wean off or stop using most types of antidepressant, there is a high chance that they will experience some side effects, a phenomenon known as antidepressant discontinuation syndrome (ADS).

Cymbalta, however, is in a class all its own when it comes to ADS, because Cymbalta withdrawal side effects last longer and are allegedly more severe than other antidepressants.

The medical community separated Cymbalta from other drugs and created Cymbalta Discontinuation Syndrome apart from ADS, because of the number of Cymbalta withdrawal cases and the severity of the Cymbalta discontinuation syndrome side effects.

Symptoms of Cymbalta withdrawal may include:

• Severe nausea
• Vomiting
• Dizziness, light-headedness, vertigo
• Headaches
• Hot and cold flashes
• Mood swings, anxiety, irritability, hostility
• Nightmares
• Brain “zaps” (electric-shock-like sensations in the brain)
• Paresthesia (sensation of tingling, tickling, prickling, pricking, or burning of a person’s skin)
• Tremors, shaking hands
• Visual disturbances

Patients may find it to be difficult to stop using the antidepressant medicatoin at all. The instructions clearly state that Cymbalta, “should be swallowed whole and should not be chewed or crushed, nor the capsule be opened and is contents be sprinkled on food or mixed with liquids.” This means that a patient can only take 20 mg pills as their lowest dose as they attempt to wean themselves off the antidepressant treatment. 

Due to the short half-life of the drug (the amount of time it takes for the drug’s effects to be reduced by half), a patient may begin experiencing Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms after just one day of not taking the medication.

Cymbalta withdrawal effects may appear even if a patient forgot to take their pill that same morning. These factors make it impossible to wean off of the drug slowly, thus increasing the patient’s chance of experiencing Cymbalta discontinuation syndrome. Some patients have allegedly experienced severe Cymbalta withdrawal side effects for years after drug use stopped.

Cymbalta Lawsuit

On April 21, 6 plaintiffs hailing from Louisiana, Texas, New York, Alabama, and Tennessee, claim they experienced severe antidepressant withdrawal syndrome symptoms after they attempted to discontinue their Cymbalta prescription.

Plaintiffs in this Cymbalta lawsuits have claimed several injuries including: “physical, emotional and psychological injuries; past and future pain and suffering; past and future mental anguish; loss of enjoyment of life; and past and future medical and related expenses.”

Additionally, Plaintiff Joianne J. claims to have made multiple attempts to stop using Cymbalta, but within days or a few weeks of suffering from Cymbalta discontinuation syndrome, she began to use to the drug again, “due to the fact that the withdrawal effects were too painful,”the Cymbalta lawsuit alleges. 

The six plaintiffs of this Cymbalta withdrawal discontinuation lawsuit allege they would not have used the drug had Lilly adequately warned them about the risk of developing Cymbalta Discontinuation Syndrome.

While the Cymbalta warning label claims that only 1-2 % of all users experience Cymbalta withdrawal, Cymbalta withdrawal studies suggest that this number may actually hover somewhere between 50% and 78%.

These six plaintiffs and others who have filed Cymbalta lawsuits or joined Cymbatla class action lawsuits have accused Lilly of negligence, design defect, and numerous other damages.

This Cymbalta Lawsuit is Case No. 1:15-cv-643 filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Indiana in the Indianapolis Division.