Any advice for husband’s sleeping pills suddenly no longer working?

[Variationofnormal]

I know the answer is go to the gp but we can't get an appointment for 6 weeks and we are desperate.

Dh has been on these pills for years but they have suddenly stopped working. We've no idea why. Inlaws are diagnosing him with every disease under the sun but not actually helping. Dh is knackered from not sleeping enough (he usually crashes out at 6am). I know it's selfish but I'm fed up of not having a functioning husband and looking after the dc and the house on my own. Any advice much appreciated.

Worth checking f they're made by a different manufacturer. My DM has been on epilepsy tablets for years, she suddenly had a few months where they just went working - GP said couldn't possibly be the tablets, but changing back to ones by the original manufacturer made all the difference.

Thank you. We've tried the GP and they've said it's not urgent so next available appointment is in 6 weeks. I'll check the manufacturer, that's a good shout. He was prescribed them for insomnia, started off on 10mg and then gradually increased until they worked.

What about a private gp. You could get an appointment really quickly then

Funnily enough, my DD also takes amitriptyline to help with sleep but hers are a different manufacturer (she gets them from the pharmacy near her uni). Sometimes, we will end up taking one of each others tablets if the pack just happens to be nearby (we pay each other back!) and DD reckons she sleeps better on the night she has had one of mine so there might be something in it if the manufacturer has changed.

I don't think amytriptiyline is one of the (very few) drugs that would be affected by the manufacturer. It shouldn't happen for any drug as part of the approval process is to have to prove that they are the same as the original. I am aware that this isn't necessarily true for epilepsy medication.

In theory, yes. In practice, slight changes in formulation can affect absorption.

When Merck reformulated Lévothyrox (levothyroxine), patients reported a range of problems, including fatigue, memory loss, palpitations, and weight gain — mostly symptoms that would be expected if the dose were too low.

A petition demanding that Merck return to the previous formulation received 318,077 (!) signatures 😬

https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k714