Cymbalta Receives Approval for Fibromyalgia - Health - redOrbit

Lilly's Cymbalta Receives Approval for Fibromyalgia - Health - redOrbit: "Cymbalta Receives Approval for Fibromyalgia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's clearance allows Lilly to sell Cymbalta for symptoms of fibromyalgia, a little-understood ailment that causes debilitating pain and fatigue.

Cymbalta, which Lilly expects to be its top-selling drug in the United States this year, is also used to treat depression, anxiety and diabetic pain.

The medicine generated $2.1 billion in sales last year, and will compete with Pfizer Inc.'s pain medicine Lyrica, which was approved for fibromyalgia in June 2007.

Lyrica, also sold for nerve pain from shingles and diabetes, had sales of $1.8 billion in 2007. It is the only other medicine approved for fibromyalgia.

Although Cymbalta's exact mechanism of action is unknown, Wohlreich thinks the drug affects fibromyalgia by helping the brain "quiet down" pain messages coming from a patient's body. With fibromyalgia, the brain's ability to block out pain messages appears not to work correctly"

I wonder if either of these treatments are available in the UK and wether they would do any more for me than the cocktail I now take?