Will Milnacipran help with CFS?

[Guest guest]

I think it may well help. But I am not a medical professional. I am

doing what we all are which is trying to figure out what is going on

in CFS.

I will be talking about CFS not Fibro, but I think it may apply to

Fibro as well. And the reason for taking Milnacipran in CFS or Fibro

is not for depression. First Milnacipran is a serotonin and a

norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. According to the Milnacipran

description " norepinephrine is clearly more important in treating

pain " .

However, from Wikipedia " Along with epinephrine, norepinephrine also

underlies the fight-or-flight response, directly increasing heart

rate, triggering the release of glucose from energy stores, and

increasing blood flow to skeletal muscles. " Also " Norepinephrine is

synthesized from dopamine " .

One of the first books I read in CFS/Fibro was by a doctor (the

doctor was not Teitlebaum) but his story was somewhat similar. He

developed Fibro after first having restless leg syndrome. This was

while he was in medical school. Restless leg often goes with fibro..

In any event, he had to drop out of medical school for a while but

did later become a doctor. What stuck with me from his book was he

later related Fibro to a lack of dopamine. He speculated that

dopamine became depleted in certain persons when they were subjected

to stress. From the above description of norepinephrine it aids the

retention of dopamine.

Other books after that have gone brought up the stress aspect as well.

One book, I think it was Teietlebaum's listed possible events that

brought on the CFS. They all could be looked at as " stress events " .

The following were the types of things that people who came down with

CFS had.

Illness (this could be viral or other. It could be short term or long

term.

A car accident.

Surgery

Job stress. Being in a work situation which you hate.

Overwork.Pushing yourself to hard to perform. The " yuppie flu "

syndrome.

Giving birth - this stresses a woman's body

Taking birth control. I distinctly remember this being listed which

probably means that it is not that rare an occurrence for women who

have taken birth control tablets to later have CFS.

Allergies.Having to deal with allergies long term is stressful.

Anyone who has them can relate to that.

There were more items in the list, but this is what I remember right

now.

The point is the stress could be one event - surgery or a car wreck.

Or it could be long term like a stressful job situation, ongoing

allergies, or overwork.

The point is whatever the cause of the stress, the body's stress

system could not handle it.

Also, I can relate to dopamine being a factor in CFS. I was having a

lot of fatigue and at the same time got pushed into situation where I

was very stressed. My blood pressure and pulse rate shot straight up

and I could not bring them down. I learned later that this was an

example of " flight-or-fight'. That was how it was labeled on ER

report.

Dopamine, cortisol, adrenaline or all involved in stress and/or fight-

or-flight. So adrenal burnout would also be involved.

But in summary, since Milnacipran helps with dopamine and in studies

helps with the pain of fibro, I think it may well also help with the

fatigue part of CFS as well.

But there is something else to consider. And that is what was the

cause that started the CFS to begin with. If it was a one shot type

stress (vs an ongoing stress), then if Milnacipran works as I think

it might, it might be a big help as it might help restore your body's

ability to withstand stress.

On the other hand, if your body is in an ongoing stress situation (as

from another health problem) then my guess is that Milnacipran would

probably help, but the underlying health problem would have to be

solved.

I hope some of this makes sense. In any event, I think Milnacipran

holds a lot of promise. I think that there is a connection:

norepinephrine - dopamine- stress - CFS.

Also, I know I am speculating about what is behind CFS. The above is

just the line of reasoning I have put together for myself.