Fibromyalgia Support Group

You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.

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psyche meds hep me

aprildae
aprildae
has anyone else noticed that their psyche meds help with the pain? i ran out of my valium, lexapro, and lamictal over 3 weeks ago and since i missed my dr appt, they wouldn't give me any more rx until i do see her on the 25th.
i think those meds must help with my fibro pain because between the bipolar, depression, anxiety etc. etc.......plus the ever-increasing pain i've been a basket case!

but, Glory Be! i found a bottle of lexapro and lamictal in the bottm of the cabinet .....ain't fibro fog great?........and i've been back on them for about 4 days and my pain is a little better. just a little but, i'll take what i can get!

i was wondering if anyone else noticed the same thing.
aprilraven
aprilraven
I take tramadol which is a mild acting ssri for my pain mostly. I'm also on abilify which helps me at night, knocks me right out, which I think is always good for both fibro and bp. Pdoc is also talking about putting me on lamictal, but he hasn't yet. I'd be curious to see if it does help, but I'm also curious how it will interact with my lyrica since they both seem to be anti-convulsants. So yes, overall, I do believe they help and I might get attacked for this, but I think there's a very high incident of dual dx for fibro and bp.
PeaceN2You
PeaceN2You
Valium acts as a muscle relaxer among other things so it makes sense that it might help with pain for some.

I take lorazepam to help with sleep, and it's in the same class, but I've never noticed any impact on my pain.

Just one more example of what works for some dosen't work for others.

April I don't know that Tramadol is prescribed as an SNRI even though it has that side effect - it's classified and prescribed as a pain med and is considered a synthetic narcotic, not a psych drug.
aprilraven
aprilraven
True, it's not prescribed as one, but it is ultimately and has an effect on people in that manner.
PeaceN2You
PeaceN2You
It does - and it has enough of an effect that there is a contraindication with other SSRIs and SNRIs. It's just not classified as a psych med.

That effect is something that makes it a good choice for a lot of people with fibromyalgia, as it acts on both the opioid receptors in the brain (like narcotic pain meds) and on the brain chemistry that impacts fibro.
CajunTiger
CajunTiger
Yep, my Celexa does help.

HUGS from down south :)
fibrolizzy
fibrolizzy
Absolutely! I found out the hard way that my SSRI helps my pain, when I weaned off my zoloft (thinking I didn't need it anymore), and I went into the worst flare to date.

I'm now taking prozac, and when I started it, I could tell my pain level definitely got better......still there, but better!
aprildae
aprildae
thanks for all your replies!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I was on Cymbalta (am having to get off of it due to insurance coverage issues) and it helped me a lot. Unfortunatley, I have bipolar too, and it made me slightly manic. I am dealing with the consequences of that right now- huge credit card bill fro spending way to much money.