Anyone tried amitriptyline? I’m concerned because when the doctor tried to prescribe t, a warning came up. I was allergic to that tegratol.
Just wondered what people thought about it
Crystalv and elstep both use it. It is a tricylic antidepressent -- it's been around a long time. Years ago it was prescribed to me for sleeping issues. As far as I am aware it is not effective on electrical shocks, so if you are having those, then it won't work on them.
Like Lisa mentioned, it's a tricyclic anti-depressant, and is a much different drug than Tegretol. An allergy to Tegretol does not mean you'll be allergic to amitriptyline. Though if you tend to have allergies to medicine, you should speak to your prescribing doctor about it.
I take 100mg/day for the 24/7 aching pain in my teeth. It is the only thing that has given me such relief. I still have pain, but much lower levels. I feel like it saved me...
I was afraid to take this drug, so they began with 25mg at bedtime. I slept 10 hrs that night! And, having such good rest, my day was great! Since then i take either 25 or 50 mg at bedtime. My doc gave the choice of dosage p/day to me. If my regular meds aren’t doing the trick by 1 pm, I’ll take half a dose of the amytriptelene to try to get a handle on the days’ pain…most often this is helpful. Hope you can find the med that is really helpful for your system 
crystalv said:
Like Lisa mentioned, it’s a tricyclic anti-depressant, and is a much different drug than Tegretol. An allergy to Tegretol does not mean you’ll be allergic to amitriptyline. Though if you tend to have allergies to medicine, you should speak to your prescribing doctor about it.
I take 100mg/day for the 24/7 aching pain in my teeth. It is the only thing that has given me such relief. I still have pain, but much lower levels. I feel like it saved me…
I took it mainly as i was unable to rest either side of my face on the pillow, this was causing me anxiety as not able to relax enough to sleep. I was reluctant to take it as first as thought i was being treated for depression and I knew the TN was causing the depression. After reading it also helped with nerve pain I started to take it an hour before bed, i increased it slowly as at first, it did not help. On reaching just 20mgs, i was able to go to bed and rest on my good side without it hurting. The other bonus was it meant i could start to wear glasses again. It did not help with my teeth/face ache, but maybe if i continued to increase it would.
I use 150 mg of amitriptyline per day...and also 600 to 900 mgs of gabapantin...Now normally it does work..however there have been a few episodes over the past 4 years when it has not worked...and the pain has become unbearable....but I also have intravenous pain killers which I break and put in a little water and find that this....last resort method...usually can take the pain away or at least decrease it by 85%....Now I have been on this site just a short while...but I am surprised at the number of people who take a much smaller dose of theses meds than me and yet have terrible side effects...I can honestly say..apart from when I first had Gabapantin...I really do not have side effects....apart from weight gain...and Iv had a gastric band to control that....I am booked in for MVD next month....but now the pain is back under control I am wondering if this is the right move....Im learning that it dosnt work if you are ATypical TN which I am....and that you still need to takes the meds...and that it can leave you with debilitating consequencies....soooooooooo...am about 50/50 at the moment....but will carry on throgh the site and see if I can decide further
I think the tablets are messing with my blood sugar levels. I'm an insulin dependant diabetic.
I'm also on Amitryptline, I only started on this at the New year. I was initially put on 10mgs and have increased it by 10mgs each week. As from tonight I will be on 50mgs,I also take 600mgs of Pregabalin per day. My Neuro told me that the Amitryptline works well alongside the Pregabalin. So far my pain has decreased although I still get pain in my teeth on the bottom jaw on right side, ( I suffer with pain on both sides unfortunately). I am sleeping much better, but it makes me feel so groggy on a morning. I do suffer lots of side effects such as feeling unsteady, my memory is still quite poor as is word searching and I my speech is also slow.....how much of this is caused by the Pregabalin or the Amitryptline, I no longer know! Weight gain is a massive problem for me,I did start gaining weight while on the Pregabalin but since I've been on the Amitryptline it seems to have gone mad, this obviously is really getting me down now and at times I just feel like taking myself of all the meds completely.
Weight gain is a massive problem with these medications... On Amitryptline I gained 42 kilos in 2 years....I had a gastric band 2 years ago...and I have lost 40 kilos in 2 years...Obviously this isnt for everyone....but you do have to be careful when taking this medication, especially as my Dr gave me 150mg of this drug to start with...There is no easy answer to this problem...I didnt eat any more...but still gained weight until I seriously had enough and did the gastric band thing...Good luck
sadly yes and it didn;t work, I found that for hte firing pain only Tegretol at 1200-1600mg daily would do it and for the burning pain well nothing realy, except Morphne tro take the edge off, I tried them all. Good luck I have had my htirde MVD 2 one side one the other side and have sime real issues from the last one just before Christmas but the first two were good. They seem to use Amitriptine alot for shingles. All the best
Hi Mandy
I went cxompeltgely loopy on both smitripyline and tegretol, really sick and senile, it was such a relief after my first MVD right sidew ot get off them, then MVD lerft side a few years later let me off morphine and pain iller for hte burningwhich didn;t responde to anti epeleptics, now I have had a third MVD and have some damage, so I guess that I have had too many interventions now. Sady bilateral too but that impliesd a genetic issue lilke blood bvessels running toon close? Best of luck, Mandy, you re I are both rare nbhut it doesn;t make it any better one surgeon wouldn;t operate as he said I would have it the other side even if he did, well one broken leg is surely an improvement on two!
Mandy said:
I'm also on Amitryptline, I only started on this at the New year. I was initially put on 10mgs and have increased it by 10mgs each week. As from tonight I will be on 50mgs,I also take 600mgs of Pregabalin per day. My Neuro told me that the Amitryptline works well alongside the Pregabalin. So far my pain has decreased although I still get pain in my teeth on the bottom jaw on right side, ( I suffer with pain on both sides unfortunately). I am sleeping much better, but it makes me feel so groggy on a morning. I do suffer lots of side effects such as feeling unsteady, my memory is still quite poor as is word searching and I my speech is also slow.....how much of this is caused by the Pregabalin or the Amitryptline, I no longer know! Weight gain is a massive problem for me,I did start gaining weight while on the Pregabalin but since I've been on the Amitryptline it seems to have gone mad, this obviously is really getting me down now and at times I just feel like taking myself of all the meds completely.
Hi Elissa,
Thanks for your note,i really appreciated it. My Neuro has talked about electic probe treatment if the meds don't work so I'm hoping and praying that I can get away with the meds, but as I saidbefore, it's the side effects from them which I'm fed up of! It seems we can't win really, it's either one or the other. I aslo agree with you that if you can at least get rid of it on one side then to us thats a massive bonus.....they're not the ones that have to live with this horrible monster!!!
Take care and I hope you improve soon xxx
im on amitripline and its like waking up with a hangover - sometimes i cant wake up and can sleep for ages . my body constantly aches and my joints r in pain , i havent put any weight on though reading through these i actually lost 6 pounds :/ x
I’m losing weight because I’m not eating
Amberzak:
I am holding steady on the weight. I don't eat. I think the pain meds are preventing the weight loss I should be having.
I had to see an Occ health Dr kast week and I yold him that my joints were aching and that I feel stiff when getting up etc, I asked him if this was the mrdication and he said he didn't think so, I'm no longer convinced if you're having the same symptoms. I womder if anyone else suffers with aching joints etc on Amitryptline!!! xx
Lisa, I am just not sure about this tablet. I'm only on a very low dose - he wanted me to build it up slowly, but already I have started to get headaches, feel achy, unable to focus, and most worryingly it's messing around with my sugars. Now, thinking about quality of life in the long run, if it's messing up my sugars (i'm insulin dependent diabetic) then that is more dangerous to my long term health than the pain is.
The tablet does seem to be causing me less pain, but I'm not sure about the side effects. So far I've been allergic to every tablet they've tried. I'm actually scared to up the dose in case the side effects aren't side effects at all, but rather a reaction. It took a week and a higher dose for the allergic reaction to come out last time.
I've never had any of those side effects from the amitriptyline. Weight gain, yes, but no aching joints, and no cognitive side effects at all. Are you taking any other meds at the same time? Sometimes it's hard to determine what's causing it if you are taking multiple meds.
The only major side effect I had was a high heart rate -- so we added a beta blocker called Nadolol. It made a big difference in how I feel, and really helped my migraines. I went six weeks without a migraine when we first added it, compared to 2-3 a week before that.
No other mess at the moment. As I said their concern in allergic reactions. I am on insulin, but I’ve been on that for years
Hi all. I havent been on here for a while but unfortunately am still off work and suffering with both trigeminal and occipital neuralgia. I have been on gabapentin since October last year and have increased from 3 to 7 and back down again to 4. I attempted to go to 3 a day about 10 days ago but have been in excrutiating pain in the lat 48 hours. The gabapentin (and previous to that the tegratol that I took for approx 3 or 4 months) have both affected my menstrual cycle and myself and my partner both very much hope to try for a baby in the next couple of years. I am therefore reluctant to consider staying on gabapentin for much longer and wish to consider alternative options. I am still awaiting to see a Neurologist, however today after a lot of tears and phone calls I managed to get my med's reviewed by my GP and she prescribed me amitriptyline. I have decided not to take it just yet as my partner is away with work for a few more days and I want some advise on how others have found this med compared to gabapentin. By the way I also take 20mg of citalopram daily.