I had a brief fling with cymbalta and felt that it aggravated the ibs, but I think anything I'm given now will seem to aggravate the ibs because I am in a flare up. I take antidepressants for depression and anxiety and general mood swings which were much worse in the past. I really was "mental" and even had a sojurn or two in the looney bin. Back in the days when they would hospitalize you to do med changes. Now the physical stuff is worse and it seems the depression comes when I am in pain and can't function too well. I wanted to try Wellbutrin but the P doc wouldn't give it to me as he said it would make me too anxious unless I first took a mood stabilizer. So he first gave me lamictal and I got a rash. Then he gave me trileptal and the tummy problems flared more. So next we tried topomax and that's when I wound up in the hospital with tummy troubles. Those are all anti-seizure drugs that are used for mood stabilizing. The GI wanted me off a lot of the drugs I had been taking. He was going to talk to the P but then changed his mind. The GI has a worse mood disorder than I do. Kind of a Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde. He was Jekyl when he admitted me but two days later became Hyde. He suddenly withdrew my pain meds and had them discharge me in the middle of the night. The nurse said that's the way he is. My neurologist ditto'd that. It's hard when the docs won't coordinate and of course each specialty feels their meds and treatments are essential. I was taking so many drugs, starting, stopping and overlapping. So now I am trying to get it down to the bare essentials.
Antidepressants react differently in different people. Lexapro sent my friend through the wall with anxiety while it really mellows me out. Doesn't lift my mood much. I have bad reactions to tranquillizers. I'll rebound with more anxiety. Vicodin perks me up and gives me energy. Go figure.
So, what kind of doc is the Crohn's guy? And do you have Crohns or is the verdict still pending? Wouldn't it be nice to have a readily diagnosable illness if one needs to be ill? I hate being told, "It's only Irritable Bowel." Hey doc, take a vacation in my body why don't you.