SAVELLA Reviews (MILNACIPRAN HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.0 (158 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare SAVELLA with similar:
Type: Rx Drug
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Results are sorted by Gender males first. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) |
More on SAVELLA: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR SAVELLA | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 5 | FMS | HBP, disorganized thinking, irritation and impatience, high levels of joint an muscle pain with each dose increase for about 3 days | My husband and I are both on Savella for FMS. I tend to be depressed and anxious, he tends to be depressed and flat in affect. I started 2 weeks before him. I had high blood pressure, and the other side effects mentioned but stuck with my dose. He had high blood pressure and the same side effects; but he went back down to 12.5/day on his dose. He is coming off Cymbalta 10 mg qd. He ran out of Cymbalta and two days later started taking Savella at 12.5 qd. 5 days later he went to 25 qd. His blood pressure and heart rate increased. Instead of moving to twice a day dosing, after 2 days he opted to cut his dose to 12.5. His BP has remained high with the reduction. He is having a lot of memory issues and his pulse is 102 compared to a normal level of 68. I am on twice a day dosing at 12.5 per dose and am feeling much better. If I am late on my dose, I feel agitated and hyper, though.I put my gender down as male since I am mostly reporting on my husband. There are no male reports so I am hoping to see some soon or to see someone check in on their progress. The posts are mostly pretty old. | M | 60 | 21 days 12.5 2X day | 5/11/2010 | 5 | m.s | Sweating bad | M | 43 | 1 years 50 2X day | 9/26/2010 | 5 | Pain & Confusion from vaccinations | Pill 1: - Intense ringing in ears at times. - Diarrhea - No pain relief - Scalp tingles - Right side burns Pill 2: - No ringing in ears - Right eye blurry - Feels like things are not being processed correctly from my right eye/ear - Scalp tingles - Diarrhea - Right side burns - No pain relief Pill 3: - Diarrhea - Ringing in my ears - Right eye hurts and is blurry - Scalp tingles - No pain relief Pill 4: - No Diarrhea - No ringing in my ears - Scalp tingles - Some pain relief - I smiled a few times and actually meant it Pill 5: - Diarrhea - Still have tingling in my head - Still have neck pain Pill 6: - Diarrhea - Still have tingling in my head - Still have neck pain Pill 7: - No Diarrhea - Still have tingling in my head - Still have neck pain - Have prostate pain now too - During intercourse, had ejaculations of prostatic fluid several times before finally having any orgasm and release of seminal fluid Pill 8: - No Diarrhe | M | 33 | 6 days 25 2X day | 11/8/2010 | 5 | CFS | I'm the 62 year old male who recently posted about Savella. It did wonders for my cfs but adversely affected my heart. To update: The cfs problems returned within 2 days of ending Savella. Now I'm on Norco 5mg, twice a day, one in morning and one in the afternoon. It does a good job of knocking out the pain and fatigue. I know people go nuts when you mention using an opiate because of the addiction potential. They need to back down. I intend to stay on the Norco as long as my m.d. allows. | M | 62 | 6 weeks 50mg 2X day | 5/11/2012 | 5 | CFS | Savella did wonders for my CFS. It knocked out 90% of my fatigue problems. But I had to get off it. It substantially increased my heart rate. The blood pressure went up, too. My cardiologist wanted me off it. I'm on a pacemaker so I have a danger of other heart problems so there's no need to aggravate my heart. | I'm hoping against hope that the CFS doesn't return. Savella is a good drug for CFS. I, unfortunately, had a side effect that wasn't tolerable. | M | 62 | 6 weeks 50mg 2X day | 5/9/2012 | 4 | Fibromyalgia | prostate enlargement, urination problems (incomplete evacuation, slow stream) after a few months, heart flutter after about 1 year, light headedness after 2 years. | I am taking Savella during the day in combination with 1800 MG of Neurontin at bedtime. For the last two years the combination has really helped my FMS symptoms of pain and cognitive problems. The best 2 consecutive years I've had in the last 20. Neurontin alone had worked in the past but eventually its effectiveness waned so my rheumatologist added Savella. The heart flutter and light headedness is bad enough that I'm backing off of the Savella. | M | 48 | 2 years 75 MG 2X day | 9/13/2014 | 4 | Fibromyalgia | Sweating! Nausea. HBP at 50mg/day. Gum soreness. Initially mood swings and crying, but now feel better about life than in years! Decrease in fatigue. Hair thinning. Leg bruising. | Titrated up slowly (only 1 pill a day). Then, 50 mg 1xday for last 3 weeks. Side effects too scary, put down to 25 mg 1xday. Hoping I can maintain this feeling of coping with pain, etc. at this lower dose. Oh yes, appetite control, weight loss bonus! Many of us are sensitive to meds - try a lower dose! | M | 51 | 7 weeks 25 mg 1X day | 9/11/2010 | 4 | Phantom limb pain | Side effects are quite unpleasant. I have to take Atenolol to lower my heart rate now because the Savella increased my resting heart rate to 115! I have also had low to normal blood pressure. Without the Atenolol, My heart races with the slightest exertion. Also, I have testicular pain. My doctor confirmed that this is a side effect of Savella. I also have trouble draining my bladder while taking this drug also unpleasant sexual side effects.. There are | This is the only drug I have ever taken that actually controls phantom limb pain. I do not like the side effects, but I put up with them because they are better than the phantom limb pain. | M | 54 | 2 months 100mg 1X day | 11/4/2010 | 3 | Nerve pain in my leg | itchy scalp, insommnia, enlarged prostate, weight loss, frequent night time urination with interrupted flow. | I took Lyrica for over a year and my physician recommended I try Savella because I wasn't getting much relief for the pain. I haven't seen any change in pain with Savella either but I'm getting side effects that I never had with Lyrica. | M | 59 | 2 months 50mg. 2X day | 3/23/2011 | 3 | Major Depression | Nausea, Dizziness, Lightheaded, spaced out, increased anxiety and panic, blurred vision, mood swings, melancholia, high pulse rate, shortness of breath, Upper respiratory tract infection like symptoms, excessive sweating, hot flashes | Very shaky start up effects - anxiety and panic increased, felt an ominous fear all the time, mood swings and irritability, sometimes subtle euphoria and sometimes severe malaise and dysphoria. I think this drug is very dose dependent because of its very short half life of 8 hours. I felt disadvantaged because unlike other SNRIs like Effexor and Cymbalta there are almost very few patient ratings and information on use of Milnacipran in treatment of MDD. Side effects felt: Nausea esp first few days and when taken without food. Dizziness and lightheadedness, feeling drunk and spaced out. Blurred vision Hyper-emotionality mainly towards melancholia and sadness. Sleep - improved, but dreams are sometimes very lucid. Tachycardia - pulse upto 120 bpm, dyspnea Upper respiratory tract infection like symptoms - post nasal drip - sore throat, and nasty mucous - but without fever - which actually makes GPs treat it as allergy. Jittery, nervous and spaced out - especially in the evening when the effects kick in. This drug has apparently helped those who have failed ECT which should make it quite efficient, but I would suggest this to be definitely not the first line of treatment for MDD, and should perhaps be reserved for depression with anhedonia and apathy, not for melancholic depression. Probably its too early for me to have a definitive view. | M | 30 | 20 days 25mg 1X day | 6/3/2010 | 3 | Joint Pain (Tentatively diag. FM) | Worst side effects have been nausea and sweating. Followed by headaches and sexual dysfunction (urethra pain?) | It has been very hard to stay on the "full" dose, and with Dr.'s permission have been adjusting dosing, however effectiveness goes down on lower doses and side effects stay about the same - so no overall benefit. Seems my best day occurred 2 days after quitting "cold turkey" from the "full" dose where joint pain was gone and I had no lingering side effects. Lasted a few hours and then I was "slammed" with the old joint pain. | M | 39 | 6 months 50mg 2X day | 6/9/2010 | 3 | Depression | Swollen prostate, frequent urination, sweating, increased pulse and BP. | Good for social anxiety and depression in that it is a clean medication, doesn't cause cognitive impairment as the SSRI's do. No noticeable withdrawal upon discontinuation. It was aggravating my prostate badly, so I had to quit. | M | 54 | 2 years 100 mg/day 1X day | 12/28/2014 | 3 | Tension Type Headaches | Extremely lethargic, irritation on small things, major side effect was my inability to pass urine properly. Severe lower abdomen pain, with back pressure. | I've had TTH for 5 years now, I switched from clonazepam (Klonopin) to Savella as a trial drug. The medication definitely was working on the receptors and I was feeling much better. I had less frequent headaches, no unilateral dispersion of pain on the right side of the head. Although the side effects of the pain in the groin and lower abdomen compelled me to stop taking this medication. If women are not having the same problem, this might be a better drug for them. After 1 week of taking the medication, I returned to my normal routine, and I experienced severe pain in my legs, pain in my chest, shortness of breath, dry nostrils, I wanted to go to the rest room, but then I could not pass any urine, which made my body go cold. | M | 27 | 1 weeks 50 2X day | 4/24/2012 | 2 | Nerve pain | Chest pain, Shortness of breath just walking to toilet and back, HBP, pulse rate to 109 (resting), Palpitations, constipation, foggy memory, sweating/ hot flashes, sore muscles, irritable/mood swings, | It did seem like it maybe was going to help with the pain in leg and bottom of feet. Too bad I was really hoping for some relief | M | 55 | 12 days 25 2X day | 1/25/2011 | 1 | back pain, fatigue | excessive sweating, hot flashes, racing heart rate, extremely high blood pressure | still having back pain and fatigue | M | 41 | 21 days 25 2X day | 1/29/2011 | 1 | fybro | swollen prostate,inability to empty bladder.pain in groin | would like to hear back from other people who have same effect's,would like to hear what medical pro's recomend. Am stopping dose . | M | 47 | 4 days 50mg 2X day | 2/15/2011 | 1 | Fibromyalgia | Difficulty urinating (very slow), tiredness, out of breath with exertion, increased heart rate, worsening of constipation, hot flashes and severe sweating at times, worsening of pain. | I take methadone for pain, which also causes most of the side effects I have listed, but Savella has now worsened them. I have only taken for 8 days, but have seen no lessening of FM pain. In fact, there has been a huge increase in pain to the highest pain level I experience (it constantly feels like it used to feel only after a day of substantial over-exertion). I don't think I'm going to stick out the remainder of the trial period due to the side effects and in reading the notes from other male users, it doesn't seem to help men at all, only some women. | M | 50 | 8 days 50 MG 2X day | 10/11/2011 | 1 | fibro pain | pain in abdomen, night sweats, compulsive crying, bad mood, sores on skin,palpitations, anxiety,headache,dry mouth, agitation | I was on Pristiq 50 mg/day with good effect on my fibro. Even though it is not listed for fibro. I also have depression with anxiety. MD suggested Savella as it is for fibro. Took the full 50 mg twice a day for 3 days so far. Not helping...more pain in legs and chest muscles, some shortness of breath (not activity related) and other symptoms already mentioned. I am not going to take this med any longer. I cannot spend my life crying. I will go back to my Pristiq. This Savella is killing my gut. I am on Celebrex also and cannot take the combo of both of them. I feel very anxious. | M | 58 | 4 days 50 2X day | 9/15/2010 | 1 | Fibromyalgia | Brain buzzing and auditory buzzing, severe hot flashes and sweating, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, anxiety, irritability, aggression, bladder infection, upper respiratory infection, light headed, headaches, quick changes in mood, feels like fire is running through my veins, trouble concentrating, insomnia, shakiness | I too had hoped this med would help with fibro, but I had even worse side effects on this than when I took Lyrica (and that was bad enough). Will be calling my doctor tomorrow to get off of this medication. Seriously, when the side effects are worse than the illness, why take the chance! Especially of concern to me was the huge jump in heart rate (to nearly dangerous levels). Please do your homework before starting this and/or other meds...I do not think doctors and drug companies care WHAT the side effects are. They are in it for the money - bottom line! | M | 54 | 10 days 25 2X day | 7/25/2010 | 1 | Chronic migraines | Sweat like a stuck pig, head felt like it was on fire. Dreams were awesome though. | Had to quit after 7 days. | M | 50 | 7 days 5 2X day | 8/23/2012 |
SAVELLA (MILNACIPRAN HYDROCHLORIDE): Milnacipran is used to treat pain caused by a condition called fibromyalgia that affects the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and supporting tissues. This medication is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) that works by helping to restore the balance of certain natural substances in the brain (neurotransmitters). FDA Approval Date: 2009-01-14 (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)