Cymbalta improves sleep in diabetic nerve damage patients

Patients with pain caused by diabetic nerve damage, or diabetic peripheral neuropathy, who are treated with Cymbalta showed improvements in both average daily pain and night pain severity, and experienced less pain-related sleep interference compared to placebo.

Eli Lilly said that for the first time, a clear correlation between reduction in average daily pain and average night pain and reduction in pain sleep interference was demonstrated in a population that was not depressed, did not experience treatment-emergent somnolence and was not on medications commonly associated with sedation. Other published studies of the relationship between pain and sleep interference have been confounded by at least one of those conditions.

“Patients with diabetic nerve pain often complain of being awoken, or having difficulty falling asleep because of pain, and it is difficult for physicians to know whether sleep problems are the cause or effect of pain,” said David Fishbain, professor of psychiatry, adjunct professor of neurological surgery and anesthesiology at the University of Miami, and lead study author. “This new analysis is important because it suggests that interference with sleep generally improves if nighttime pain improves.”