Is There a New Medicine for Fibromyalgia Pain?

Cymbalta makers have been working on getting it approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat fibromyalgia. It would have another drug approved for this use. First, anti-convulsant Lyrica, approved recently and is in wide use. Cymbalta has been FDA approved for depression, anxiety, and neuropathic pain.

There were some early studies using Cymbalta with fibromyalgia, which shows some promise. Cymbalta is for depression. While most antidepressants work on both systems of neurotransmitters serotonin and noradrenaline neurotransmitter systems, Cymbalta works on both systems.

recent clinical trial

Earlier this month, at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, reports a new study released on Cymbalta. This study is a Phase III clinical trial, which means where the drug is underway studied for possible FDA approval.

This study lasted 27 weeks and compared to people with fibromyalgia who Cymbalta compared to those who received placebo.

participants were compared using the following measures:

* Pain severity measured by the Brief Pain Inventory, and

* global improvement as reported by the patient.

patients taking Cymbalta, compared to those that placebo did not report significant improvement in relation to any of these measures.

Although the results were disappointing overall, Cymbalta did perform better on some secondary measures, including:

* The overall mental functioning, and

* Mental fatigue

While these results were disappointing in some ways, I believe Cymbalta will continue to be one of many possible important component of good management of fibromyalgia. This will be particularly useful for People with fibromyalgia who have significant depressive symptoms.

There were other Phase III Trial studies on Cymbalta for fibromyalgia pain, and we are awaiting the report of these results.