Old aged, taking Cymbalta, having severe memory loss, crying episodes. Could the Cymbalta be causing this?
Patient: My 92 yr. old mother was started on Cymbalta 30 mg about one year ago when her prior antidepressant , Zoloft , appeared to stop working. Her memory has declined even more when an additional 30 mg of Cymbalta was added for a total of 60 mg Cymbalta. She is having severe memory loss now, crying episodes which are uncontrollable, hallucinations of events that never happened. Could the Cymbalta be causing these symptoms or is it just a progression of dementia? Doctor: Hello,Dementia is unlikely if the symptoms you have mentioned appeared recently specially after increasing the dose of Cymbalta.Considering her age, 90 mg of Cymbalta per day can be considered to be a very high dose for her in my view. Many a  times, antidepressant like Cymbalta can also destabilize the mood of patients resulting in symptoms like uncontrollable crying, irritability, insomnia, memory loss, hallucinations etc and in such cases, the  antidepressant need to be discontinued and or replaced by a mood stabilizer.You should discuss with her doctor about reducing the dose of Cymbalta to 60 mg per day or less and see if this helps.Kind regardsVikas