The study, which included patients with and without depression, also showed greater improvements in patients taking Cymbalta (duloxetine HCl) than in those taking placebo in scores on the patient’s global impression of improvement questionnaire (PGI- I), which measures how the patient has felt overall since beginning to take the medication.
At three months, patients treated with 60mg per day or 120mg per day of duloxetine showed significantly greater reduction in pain and improvement in PGI-I scores compared with patients taking placebo. At three months, more patients treated with either 60mg or 120mg of duloxetine showed significantly greater reduction in pain as measured by a 30% improvement in baseline BPI scores (50.7% and 52.1%, respectively) compared with patients taking placebo (36%).
Fibromyalgia is estimated to affect 2% to 4% of the US population, the majority being women. In addition to chronic pain, fibromyalgia patients often have complaints about cloudy thinking, morning stiffness and overall inability to function in their everyday lives.