AMITRYPTILINE

How many people have taken Amitryptiline the anti-depressant, that is good for promoting sleep and reducing mild spasms?. If you have did it help your FMS symptoms?

How many people have taken Amitryptiline the anti-depressant, that is good for promoting sleep and reducing mild spasms?. If you have did it help your FMS symptoms?

I have been taking it for several years and it do help us but you may have to increase it the longer you are on it. What I do is decrease my dosage by 10mg for an week or so, then take the full dosage again. I take 30-40 mg each day and know that it hasn't affected my memory. This can happen if you take high dosages - you can get memory lapses from taking too much of it each day and when you stop taking it, your memory of that time period will gradually come back over time - that's what happened to me years ago and now I take only 30-40mgs per day and no more.

G

Elavil did help make me sleepy, but it did nothing for the quality of my sleep, and I awoke groggy. It also has a nasty side effect: It can cause large-scale and rapid weight gain. The same is true for Flexeril, a muscle relaxant in the same family as Elavil.

Love, Mikie

Hi Sean,

It has been the miracle medicine for me. I have only been using it for a few months now. I am on 20 mgs a day. I have not gained weight or noticed any side effects. I also watch my weight. I don't think that it has helped my FM pain. It has helped with my nerve pain from spinal stenosis and some other spine complications. I was sleeping about 90 minutes at a stretch and waking up with bad back pain for a long time. I now only wake up once or so a night. I have even had a few nights of full sleep (7 hours). I tried Soma, Sonata, and a few others that did not help. I think in my case the amitriptyline, or elavil helps to reduce the nerve pain enough for me to sleep. Many back surgeons also prescribe this medication prior to surgery or to help with chronic pain management.

Take care,
Jan

This book says not to take it, that there are better meds in the tricyclic family with fewer side effects. However, this is the one most widely prescribed drugs for our illnesses and others.

Love, Mikie

did NOT like it!!It wiped me right out!!good??no. It lingered on&on....so the next day I felt like mega crap instead of just feeling like your basic crap!Who needs that?I"m fighting major fatigue!It made it worse.(if you can imagine that!)
Best regards,
Tracey

weight gain, somnolence, night sweats, night terrors.....all when I was in my early twenties. I'm 47 now and I wouldn't take it if you paid me to!

Live and learn!
Kady
[This Message was Edited on 09/28/2002]

Amitryptiline is one of the first fibro drugs prescribed for me (about 10 years ago) and unfortunately, after about 6 months, I was almost catatonically depressed. And, I was so depressed, I couldn't figure out what was wrong at first. Finally figured it out. As most fibro suffers learn, if there's a weird side effect to a drug, we'll find it! And in the fine print of the PDR, sure enough it says the tricyclic antidepressants can cause depression in rare cases. Just be sure and keep a journal of your symptoms so you can check for difference that are perhaps attributible to your medicines.

made me darn near psychotic, I don't need help in that arena.


Jaci

I took one pill and thought I was losing my mind. GAVE me panic attacks.

Feels so good to see how many others had horrible reactions to this drug (which doesn't mean it's bad for everyone!) But sometimes, you feel like you are such a freak and NO ONE wants to hear about this strange stuff. Not even the doctors. By the way, flexeril, closely related to elavil, also makes me cry and mope. Celexa has been a Godsend for me. It only deals with the depression, not all the other symptoms, but after spending a year crying every day, at least one part of this DD is gone--at least for now.

I started this damn medication and ended up in the suicide ward at a local hospital!!!!!!! I lost a day of my life, scattered memory.....clueless....got lost driving...called people and had conversations I dont remember, etc. There are many drugs out there to help people with Fibro and depression, this drug can cause severe effects so people should be aware of what can happen when strating this drug or other drugs in this category.

I took it for a year, and it took me two to get over what it did to me. I'm a petite person, 4'11" and gained over 60 lbs over the span of a year.The ONLY good thing about it, and believe me this is what made me keep taking it, I SLEPT at night. For the first time in my life.However, I was so dragged down all the time, I was useless as a Mom and wife. I was so depressed, I DIDN'T even realize all of this was happening to me. So, I never recommend it to anyone. I am taking trazodone now, and I'm content with that. It does help me sleep, but like with the elavil, the dose has to keep moving up. Hate that! But STAY away from elavil!! Patti G

What dosage were you people taking? Using Amitryptiline, for fibro, the dosage should be 10mg, there really should not be any side effects at this dosage. If your taking it for depression, 20mg to 60mg, then you will get side effects. My question is what dosages were you people taking?

Hello Sean,

I began with a 10 mg dosage about an hour before bedtime. After two months, it was increased to a 20 mg dose. The reason I am awake right now is because I forgot to take it tonight. I have had about 90 lovely minutes of sleep tonight...my usual, before I began taking Elavil. I do not have any side effects. This is a very low dose, as you know. If you try it, I wish you the best. It works for me.

Be well,
Jan

from doctors over the years. It's doesn't seem very helpful to tell people with fibro that they shouldn't have certain side effects, etc. Doctors do a GREAT job making us feel like we're nuts without hearing more of the same. (BTW I took 10 mg. Made me crazy).

a very low dose of this & found that it did absolutely nothing

Lease

Currently I am taking a low dose---started on it 2 weeks ago....at 10 mg. at bedtime, which was increased to 20 mg. at bedtime after 5 days, for more restful sleep. So far--so good. I don't seem to be having any side effects at this dosage. I will watch carefully, though. Years ago, after the tragic death of a loved one, I was put on Elavil for three months--a much larger dose, for depression, and had no adverse side effects from that...that was pre FMS, though.
Karen

I'm sorry if I upset you, but I think you totally mis-understand where I'm coming from. It is important that we put things into perspective, in order to do that it is important that we are aware of the facts. I was looking for facts. I know that the usual dosage for fibro is 10 to 15mg, anything higher is used for treating depression, the higher the dose the more likely the side effects obviously. So I wanted to make sure that the people that posted on the effects of this drug were actually taking a low dose, and not the higher dose used in treating depression. Believe it or not doctors are not really experts at prescribing the correct dosage for a complaint. My local pharmacist has questioned my prescriptions on 2 occasions in the past. Once concerning a high dosage of a drug used for treating fungal infections. The pharmacist actually rang the doctor up to explain the dosage was usually only given for serious fungal infections of the brain, the doctor then agreed to reduce the dosage on the pharmacists advice. I see that a couple of people have now posted saying that Amitryptiline has not caused them any trouble at low dose. one say's it had no effect, another saying it has helped a bit. To my knowledge in the treatment of fibro, it is used to treat muscle spasm only, it probably will not help much with anything else. I hope you understand where I was coming from now leann, I believe it is extremely important, to be absolutely sure that you follow the correct advice on what to take, at what dosage, and not to automatically assume that because you seem to get a bad reaction, that it is due to the drugs you are on at the time. Remember I am a fellow sufferer, I have not just been there, I am there. I know all about the ups and downs of this condition, how doctors and other people often down play the condition. I know how lonely and frustrating it can seem to be in the situation you are in, but I also understand how important it is to be positive and level headed. I am constantly learning more and more about this condition, and that is due to feedback from the people on this board to whom I'm extremely greatful for their info, but it is in mine and everyone elses interest to make sure we get as near as possible to the full facts. It was no good me automatically assuming that amitryptiline is no good and should be left well alone, if people are taking dosages higher than that recommended for fibro. The drug is quite obviously causing problems but at what dosage are the problems occuring? This is what I would like to know.