Duloxetine for treating painful neuropathy, chronic pain or fibromyalgia
Worth asking your prescriber whether your dose is at the 60 mg level shown to help nerve pain and fibromyalgia, since the 20 mg dose was not effective in these trials.
Well-supported by good-quality research. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Eli Lilly, duloxetine's manufacturer, sponsored all but one of the included trials.
In 18 trials with 6,407 participants, duloxetine 60 mg daily achieved 50% or greater pain reduction more often than placebo in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (risk ratio 1.73, 95% CI 1.44 to 2.08; NNT 5) and fibromyalgia (risk ratio 1.57, 95% CI 1.20 to 2.06; NNT 8), while about 1 in 6 people stopped because of side effects; 20 mg daily did not work.
Worth asking
Worth asking your prescriber whether your dose is at the 60 mg level shown to help nerve pain and fibromyalgia, since the 20 mg dose was not effective in these trials.
What it is FDA approved for
Read off the label. Trial duration and approval year are shown only where they were recorded — never inferred.
- Major depressive disorder (adults)
- Generalized anxiety disorder (adults and pediatric patients 7 years and older)
- Diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (adults)
- Fibromyalgia (adults and pediatric patients 13 years and older)
- Chronic musculoskeletal pain (adults)
Source
Duloxetine for treating painful neuropathy, chronic pain or fibromyalgia — Lunn MP, Hughes RA, Wiffen PJ (2014)
Top-tier peer-reviewed journal
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007115.pub3
DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007115.pub3
How this was scored
- Study design
- Meta-analysis of randomised trials
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
- Published in
- Top-tier peer-reviewed journal
- Sample size
- 6,407
- Preregistered
- Yes
- Conflicts disclosed
- No
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published August 19, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
Resolv rates this source "strong evidence". Well-supported by good-quality research. It scores 77 out of 100 on our published rubric. One caveat travels with that badge: Eli Lilly, duloxetine's manufacturer, sponsored all but one of the included trials. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Duloxetine for treating painful neuropathy, chronic pain or fibromyalgia — Lunn MP, Hughes RA, Wiffen PJ (2014). Published in: Top-tier peer-reviewed journal. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007115.pub3. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Who paid for this research, and does that matter?
Study design: Meta-analysis of randomised trials. Funding: Funding not disclosed. Independence from the proponent is not recorded. Industry sponsorship is one of the most reliably measured biases in medicine, which is why funding carries real weight in the score rather than sitting in a footnote.
Is duloxetine (Cymbalta), cymbalta FDA approved?
Yes — FDA approved for Major depressive disorder (adults), Generalized anxiety disorder (adults and pediatric patients 7 years and older), Diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (adults), Fibromyalgia (adults and pediatric patients 13 years and older), Chronic musculoskeletal pain (adults). Approval is for a specific indication, not for everything the drug is prescribed for.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.