ANTI-DEPRESSENTS FOR PAIN?!

  Dr:
  After being in a mva 6 months ago, mri (negative) 3 months of physical therapy, etc. I find I am still in alot of pain in my upper neck and shoulder blade.  I take 600mg of ibprofen a couple of times a day and now they have prescribed 'efferson' a anti-depressent to see if that will help the pain.  I have never heard of this before.  They wanted to give me 'elavil' but I declined (having heard negatives about this drug).  Any info you can give will be appreciated.  I have taken 'flexerill' in the past as well.  I really would rather not take anything and get this problem "FIXED" but no one can seem to diagnos it other than 'cervical sprain'.
  Thank you for input
  Vicki
Dear Vicki,
Antidepressant medications are frequently used in  neuropathic pain; not for their antidepressant affect but for their analgesic affect.  All medications have one side effect or another,however, you may want to begin a trial of a medication in this class of drugs (at least for the short term-sometimes these nonnarcotic medications may in themselves or in combination with other treatment modalities be sufficient to control a patient's pain. GoodLuck.