For people suffering with Fibromyalgia: How well does Savella work for you?
Hi there. If you have fibromyalgia and are taking Savella, please tell me if it works well for you. Are there any unpleasant side-effects?
I took Lyrica a few years back and it helped with the pain, but it also made my hands and feet swell up so I had to stop taking it.
Any information will be helpful.
Public Comments
1. I do not personally suffer from fibromyalgia, but am familiar with Savella. It is a SNRI class of medication. Which is a Serotonin and Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. This essentially allows more of both Serotonin, and Nor-epinephrine to circulate through the brain, across the synapse(s), to improve mood, cognition, pain, alertness, etc.A medication very similar in action to this would be Cymbalta. Yes Cymbalta is an Anti-depressant (but it also used for fibro, and other conditions).
The Savella is an antidepressant essentially as well.
It was developed in the early 90's, and was released in the mid 90's in Europe for Depression. Fast forward 15 years and it has been approved here in the US for fibromyalgia (but not depression). Go figure, but that is how things work.
There are side effects with every medication, especially medications of this type.
That said, one person may have unbearable side effects while the next wouldn't be able to complain of any side effect. So it is definitely worth trying if you've tried other treatments and they have proven ineffective.
Fibromyalgia is poorly understood, and is just recently gaining enough proof that mainstream medicine is accepting it and starting to treat it 'seriously' so to speak. So unfortunately patients well.. have to be patient. It may be another decade before really good treatments are available for the disease.
The likely side effects from an SNRI like this are largely stimulatory. IE: Increased heart rate, energy, restlessness, agitation, sweating, and so on. Again, not everyone will have problems.. and some will have alot, some will have next to none.
With these types of medications the side effect profiles tend to lessen considerably after a few weeks of allowing the body to adjust. So what you feel in week one is very unlikely to be what you feel a month into treatment.
Lyrica (and its dad Neurontin) work in completely different ways for pain so there is really no comparison for these two medications. About the only good comparison for Savella is Cymbalta. (which is new , relatively, itself). Even there they can have drastically different results on the same person. On the same principle that Prozac might work for Joe very well, but Celexa and Paxil are intolerable.
If your doctor recommends it, do your research (as you are), and give it a fair shot if you decide to try it. IE: Give it 6 weeks at least before ruling absolute judgement. (Unless, of course, the side effects are just SO drastic you couldn't possibly continue).
Good luck!
2. lyrica is in the anti seizure class--you can try other drugs in that class like neurontin
you can combine anti seizure and antidepressant
Savella is just another SNRI---it is said to have fewer side effects that the others..but there is more hype than hope--its not that much different than what was already available
3. Savella was torture. My stomach would burn terribly and I was very nauseous. I hope it works for you !
