Aa
amitriptyline ?????
hi folks
my gp prescribed amitriptyline 25mg twice a day for my nerve pain yesterday.
is it any good and what are the side effects.
he tod me to start with one a day at first before bed and see how i go on
regards bairdy
my gp prescribed amitriptyline 25mg twice a day for my nerve pain yesterday.
is it any good and what are the side effects.
he tod me to start with one a day at first before bed and see how i go on
regards bairdy
As usual Quix is an excellent source of info, as well as many others here who can report their own experiences (which may not be what you experience).
I take 1200 Gbapentin daily and just 10mg of Amitriptyline at night which I find is great for me. I got over my hand up of taking an anti-dperessant and now feel rested in the morning and have good dream sleep which I missed out for months as I was sleeping so badly thinking I had anxiety rather than understanding it was nerve pain/neurological sx.
I wd not have wanted to start out on such a huge dose of Amitriptyline..I felt zogged when I took 20mg at night and could not function in the morning and needed more sleep than I had time for. I reduced my dosage down to see what it did for me and then told my GP and she was supportive. I think it is important to work out for yourself the pros and cons of your meds and to find the dosage that suits your body to help your own individual sx.
Hope that all makes sense but I think it just supports what Quix was describing.
Cheers for now
Sarah
I take 1200 Gbapentin daily and just 10mg of Amitriptyline at night which I find is great for me. I got over my hand up of taking an anti-dperessant and now feel rested in the morning and have good dream sleep which I missed out for months as I was sleeping so badly thinking I had anxiety rather than understanding it was nerve pain/neurological sx.
I wd not have wanted to start out on such a huge dose of Amitriptyline..I felt zogged when I took 20mg at night and could not function in the morning and needed more sleep than I had time for. I reduced my dosage down to see what it did for me and then told my GP and she was supportive. I think it is important to work out for yourself the pros and cons of your meds and to find the dosage that suits your body to help your own individual sx.
Hope that all makes sense but I think it just supports what Quix was describing.
Cheers for now
Sarah
Thanks, Tonya!
Tonya is the perfect example of the person I was describing. She is on gabapentin and the Elavil (brand name) is used in a small dose at night for sleep and has a synergistic pain-relieving action with the gabapentin.
She brings up a good point. It IS an old drug, so there is a lot of experience with it. However, in my experience of using it with kids and adolescents, one does not always get used to the sedation. Lingering problems with sedation was a major reason for discontinuing it months into therapy. Also, certain people have cardiac arrhythmias on it, and for that reason it is a serious drug if overdosed on - as are many of the neurologic meds we use.
Bairdy - I think it is important that you not feel that Amitriptyline is not a good med for you. What you experienced this morning is what we have talked about in starting at too high a dose. If your doc does not want to use a more typical firstline med, then talk to him about starting with half a pill just a night for a week or two and then adding a half of a pill in the morning for a week or two. Then you could try the whole pill at night and see if you could tolerate that for a while - and "then" move up to the 25mg twice a day.
Hope all this has helped.
Quix
Tonya is the perfect example of the person I was describing. She is on gabapentin and the Elavil (brand name) is used in a small dose at night for sleep and has a synergistic pain-relieving action with the gabapentin.
She brings up a good point. It IS an old drug, so there is a lot of experience with it. However, in my experience of using it with kids and adolescents, one does not always get used to the sedation. Lingering problems with sedation was a major reason for discontinuing it months into therapy. Also, certain people have cardiac arrhythmias on it, and for that reason it is a serious drug if overdosed on - as are many of the neurologic meds we use.
Bairdy - I think it is important that you not feel that Amitriptyline is not a good med for you. What you experienced this morning is what we have talked about in starting at too high a dose. If your doc does not want to use a more typical firstline med, then talk to him about starting with half a pill just a night for a week or two and then adding a half of a pill in the morning for a week or two. Then you could try the whole pill at night and see if you could tolerate that for a while - and "then" move up to the 25mg twice a day.
Hope all this has helped.
Quix
Hello,
I take Amitryptiline (Elavil) at night before bed. it certainly helps w/ sleep becasue it helps you get into that REM Sleep that so many of us do not get adequately enough of. I have a 25mg tablet and cut it in half and only take half. I also take Gabapentin and Baclofen.
Elavil really gets a BAD wrap because so many people hear the horrible stories of it making you so tired the following morning that you can not even function.......The truth of the matter is....YES, It may / probably will make you feel a bit more tired in the begining and that is partly becasue you are FINALLY getting the proper rest that we have been lacking.
If you start off on a low dose at night...this will certainly help w/ pain and Sleep! It may take a Good week or maybe even two fro you to get used to the medication and then you will finally feel refreshed (as far as the sleep goes) and should help w/ your chronic pain.
Of course ALL presciption drugs can have side affects that would cause one to stop the medication. Just read the brochure from the Pharmacist to look for serious problems that could arise from Elavil.
I certainly would Not start off taking this med 2 times daily at the whole 25mgs either. But that's just me :) Elavil has been around for a very, very, long time and has been proven to be very affective for those that stick it out.
Good Luck and YOU will make the decision that is right for YOU! No Worries though, everything is gonna be alright :)
Take Care,
~Tonya
ps..Yes, it will cause you to have "cotton Mouth' in the beginning, but that to will subside w / in a a week or so......
The two meds used most often for neuropathic pain seem to be gabapentin (brand - Neurontin) and pregebalin (Lyrica). Gabapentin is said to have more side effects, but this is not true for everyone. Its advantage is a wide dosing range to move up into. Early doses might be something like 100mg three times a day (total 300mg / day) but the max is said to be 3600mg pr day. A lot of people here are on 1200mg to 1800mg per day.
Lyrica, on the other hand is far more expensive, probably because it is newer and there is no generic. It is touted to have fewer side effects. A lot of people here are on it with great success.
If you read the link on treating neuropathic pain you will see that even though it takes time when you are eager to stop the pain, you need to work your way up slowly on the doses. This takes care of a huge amount of side effects. If you jump right into what will be your therapeutic dose, it would often cause such severe side effects that you would stop it and refuse to ever consider it again.
For people whose pain keeps them from sleeping well, the addition of a low dose of Amil----(I hate typing it out and always get the "y" in the wrong place) at bedtime can work wonders. Generally this low dose is 10mg to 20mg from what I have seen. Perhaps as time goes on people work up to a higher dose.
Then, for severe pain, like Michelle has with her several types of facial pain, a breakthrough med - often an opiate - is often used. Once the majority of the pain is handled by the neuropathic pain med, then the opiates seem to have a better effect. Used alone the opiates need high doses and still are pretty ineffective.
There are other meds, but these are the ones that I am familiar with.
You could show this to your doc, if (s)he isn't terrribly ego involved. Most docs don't get a whole lot of training in neuropathic pain management. You also could show the HP and my earlier remarks.
I hope this helps and that anyone with other experience will chime in. As I say I am not an expert. I've just tried to be observant.
Quix, MD
Lyrica, on the other hand is far more expensive, probably because it is newer and there is no generic. It is touted to have fewer side effects. A lot of people here are on it with great success.
If you read the link on treating neuropathic pain you will see that even though it takes time when you are eager to stop the pain, you need to work your way up slowly on the doses. This takes care of a huge amount of side effects. If you jump right into what will be your therapeutic dose, it would often cause such severe side effects that you would stop it and refuse to ever consider it again.
For people whose pain keeps them from sleeping well, the addition of a low dose of Amil----(I hate typing it out and always get the "y" in the wrong place) at bedtime can work wonders. Generally this low dose is 10mg to 20mg from what I have seen. Perhaps as time goes on people work up to a higher dose.
Then, for severe pain, like Michelle has with her several types of facial pain, a breakthrough med - often an opiate - is often used. Once the majority of the pain is handled by the neuropathic pain med, then the opiates seem to have a better effect. Used alone the opiates need high doses and still are pretty ineffective.
There are other meds, but these are the ones that I am familiar with.
You could show this to your doc, if (s)he isn't terrribly ego involved. Most docs don't get a whole lot of training in neuropathic pain management. You also could show the HP and my earlier remarks.
I hope this helps and that anyone with other experience will chime in. As I say I am not an expert. I've just tried to be observant.
Quix, MD
hi
the only other pain med im on is naproxen and that dont work too well either.
i thought the dose too high to start on and yes i feel totally zapped and so shaky!!!!!!!
think i will ask for an alternative.
can you recomend something with not to many side effects and works well
thanks bairdy
the only other pain med im on is naproxen and that dont work too well either.
i thought the dose too high to start on and yes i feel totally zapped and so shaky!!!!!!!
think i will ask for an alternative.
can you recomend something with not to many side effects and works well
thanks bairdy
Are you already on anything else for pain?
Amiltriptyline is an excellent med for pain, but it is best used, I think, as an add-on to another med. When a more tradiitional pain med like (gabapentin, pregabalin, etc) is helping, but not quite enough, then the addition of A can be helpful. One of the biggest drawbacks to it is that it is very sedating, so I don't think it is a great first-line pain med.
But, as a second add-on you can use far lower doses, or just a single low-dose at night and it will often augment the first med's effectiveness. We have many members here who are on such a combination with outstanding success.
25mg is a hefty dose which may likely knock you out and leave you sleepy and goofy the next morning. If you are going to take it, then do it on a night where you don't care about accomplishing anything the next day. I would have liked to have seen the beginning dose be around 10mg or so.
One of the biggests mistakes made by non-pain specialist doctors is to start the med at too high a dose, instead of working up slowly. This often dooms the med to failure because of unacceptable side effects. This is true with the other pain meds like gabapentin and Lyrica also.
We have a great Health Page written by a Pain Management doc from a premier university. He explains the proper way to approach the treatment of nerve pain, which is what I am assuming you have.
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/General-Principles-of-Treating-Neuropathic-Nerve-Pain/show/452?cid=36
He also wrote a fabulous article explaining what nerve pain is:
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/Nerve-Neuropathic-Pain---A-Primer/show/371?cid=36
I guess my overall opinion is that this is not the best first-line med and it is too high a starting dose. But, with the usual disclaimer that I am not a neurologist nor a pain management specialist.
Quix, MD
Amiltriptyline is an excellent med for pain, but it is best used, I think, as an add-on to another med. When a more tradiitional pain med like (gabapentin, pregabalin, etc) is helping, but not quite enough, then the addition of A can be helpful. One of the biggest drawbacks to it is that it is very sedating, so I don't think it is a great first-line pain med.
But, as a second add-on you can use far lower doses, or just a single low-dose at night and it will often augment the first med's effectiveness. We have many members here who are on such a combination with outstanding success.
25mg is a hefty dose which may likely knock you out and leave you sleepy and goofy the next morning. If you are going to take it, then do it on a night where you don't care about accomplishing anything the next day. I would have liked to have seen the beginning dose be around 10mg or so.
One of the biggests mistakes made by non-pain specialist doctors is to start the med at too high a dose, instead of working up slowly. This often dooms the med to failure because of unacceptable side effects. This is true with the other pain meds like gabapentin and Lyrica also.
We have a great Health Page written by a Pain Management doc from a premier university. He explains the proper way to approach the treatment of nerve pain, which is what I am assuming you have.
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/General-Principles-of-Treating-Neuropathic-Nerve-Pain/show/452?cid=36
He also wrote a fabulous article explaining what nerve pain is:
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/Nerve-Neuropathic-Pain---A-Primer/show/371?cid=36
I guess my overall opinion is that this is not the best first-line med and it is too high a starting dose. But, with the usual disclaimer that I am not a neurologist nor a pain management specialist.
Quix, MD
I took this and never got up to a full dose (past one pill a day) it is very sedating. I slept like a log the whole two weeks Itook it, but it didn't quite get rid of my pain. My Doc, never made the propper diagnosis though.
Lyrica works really well for me, and it is not as sedating, or have as many side effects.
Lyrica works really well for me, and it is not as sedating, or have as many side effects.
It was recommended that I try amitriptyline several years ago for pain, especially headaches. I researched the drug and was concerned about some of the side effects, especially with a long commute to work.
I spoke with my sister who had been prescribed this medication. Her experience included personality changes and she was very much against the medication, especially because it had a significant effect on her job functioning. Due to the fact the we are blood relatives, I decided against the medication.
Other people may have had positive experiences with this medication; I'm just throwing in feedback for consideration.
Audrey
I spoke with my sister who had been prescribed this medication. Her experience included personality changes and she was very much against the medication, especially because it had a significant effect on her job functioning. Due to the fact the we are blood relatives, I decided against the medication.
Other people may have had positive experiences with this medication; I'm just throwing in feedback for consideration.
Audrey
Amitriptyline/Elevil is a try-cyclic anti-depressant wildly used in the 60's and 70's. It's used now to help with different chronic pain issues.
The side effects are dry mouth, increase in appetite, sedation and nausea to name a few. I don't take this but I think there are a number of people on it here.
Red
The side effects are dry mouth, increase in appetite, sedation and nausea to name a few. I don't take this but I think there are a number of people on it here.
Red
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