Asking for your experience of Amitriptyline

[fatherfurlong]

My daughter has a life limiting condition and consequently has had to have many hospital appts and tests since she was little.
She is currently very anxious and depressed. She was like this around 5 years ago when she was put on Citalopram. That served her well until recently and her medical team put her on Amitriptyline which they said would help with her mood, the uncomfortable sensations she has in her face and also help her sleep.
She has only been on it a week but it has made no difference- in fact if anything she is worse. She is still very anxious now thinks she has a brain tumour, takes her ages to get to sleep and then only a light sleep( if I go to check on her she wakes up) maybe gets 4 or 5 hours. I am exhausted as it is only me who she speaks to about all this. When she wakes up at night usually about 3 times I have to take her to the toilet( she is not mobile and uses a wheelchair).
I have sent countless e mails to our GP and her medical team who have said they’ll see her next month.
In the meantime what are people’s experience of Amitriptyline good or bad, how long does it take to work, what about supplements? I see a couple of folk have mentioned magnesium and someone suggested something called Ashwagaranda or something from Holland & Barrett. Also of course have to think carefully about how they would interact with medicines she’s already on.
I am at my wits end.

Awful.
I actually kept me awake all night and left me feeling zombified during the day. I know it’s supposed to make you sleep, but it had the opposite effect on me . When I googled it seems it has this effect on some people.

Sorry, it sounds so tough for both of you. I only sleep now as I’m prescribed Gabapentin for pain.

High strength magnesium did give me some sleep prior to that. I was on propranolol for anxiety too but only took it as and when. A full dose of that if I was unable to sleep did shut my head off and relax me enough to sleep, although I would wake early.

I take it as a migraine preventative rather than for depression/anxiety. I have to take it around 6 so I can get up for work the next morning, any later and I struggle (zombified like pp said). I get hemiplegic migraine with nerve pain and although I've had the headaches and visual disturbances a few times since I've been on them (around 3 years), the nerve pain hasn't happened.

They definitely help me sleep. I know if I've missed a dose because I'm awake all night. For me the sleep effect was immediate. Like literally took the first dose and was snoring 30 minutes later! It's not the same now but as I say I know if I haven't had it.

It sounds really tough for you both, I hope you get some relief soon

I took it for ages. Can’t remember how long it took to work. Made me sleep really well. Had to go up to 125mg to feel better and l felt really good. But it made me bad tempered.

My mum takes it at night to help her relax and sleep. First time she took it she said it was like sleeping on a bed of feathers. It still relaxes her and eases her pain enough to sleep

I took it for migraines. It made me gain weight at an alarming rate and I had awful brain fog and drowsiness so I stopped it. It definitely prevented my migraines but I wasn't prepared to put up with the side effects.

Your dd's situation sounds really tough, I hope you find a solution soon.

Same.

Some medication gets you to sleep but doesn't keep you asleep. Some keep you asleep but don't get you asleep. I found amitriptyline didn't let me wake up.

I loved it and it helped me a lot once I found my correct dose. They build it up slowly and it takes time to work and also time for your body to get used to the side effects. For someone people it is awful but if you persist your experience can get better with it. It took me 3 months to get to a decent dose til I felt better.

I was prescribed this the first time I requested anti depressants and it made me feel much worse within a week. Basically I couldn't sleep 😑
I went back to the doctor and I was then prescribed Prozac which was much better and far more effective.

First 2 weeks are rough depending on the dosage. My GP referred to it as the sledgehammer approach to depression. It hits you like a train but it works.

The dry mouth sticks around but other side effects tend to resolve quickly. Once you're on a therapeutic dosage it takes about 6 weeks to kick in. They normally start you off on a 10mg or so. Good for sleeping but won't do much besides, you won't even notice you're on it until you hit about 50mg.

Thank you so much for all your experiences. My daughter is still struggling but as she is on such a low dose- 10mg I think they will double it before considering other options. She now says that she thinks it’s causing tinnitus. She was awake nearly all of last night because of the noise in her ears. Nothing I could do but we put her radio on to try and give some distracting noise as I thought it may help.
It is all so distressing because I have no way of helping her except to listen but we just go round and round with a seemingly unending list of symptoms which she keeps adding to.
Is tinnitus or noise disturbances common when taking Amitriptyline?

I have taken Amitryptylene, just a low dose of 10 mg and found it excellent for sleep. I was a bit woozy in the mornings but just took it a bit earlier. I didn't get any other side effects on 10 mg apart from a bit of a dry mouth.

I take 40mg for sleep and it is effective some of the time.

I was told by the GP that it is not used as an anti depressant anymore - as better drugs exist (it was created in 70s), but they found it helps other things like pain, migraine and sleep.

Hi
im on this for sleep. I’m perimenopausal but GP won’t provide HRT because I still get periods and my FSH levels are in pre-menopausal levels.

it really relaxes me and helps me sleep, but if I’m really anxious it doesn’t work. I’m on 20 mg and have been since August 2021 after nearly a year of completely knackering light, disturbed, unrested sleep nearly every night.

I'm on double that just for sleep issues.

I'm on 10mg for nerve pain. It does help with my sleep and nerve pain, but it does give me a dry mouth. I worked out that I needed to take it about 3 hours before I went to bed so that it wasn't affecting me the next morning. I recently upped my dose to 20mg and the dry mouth was extreme again like it was at the beginning. It does take a while to get used to it.

I took it some years ago, I found it got me too sleep but after a while it wore off.

I took it for migraines. It made me feel really groggy in the mornings, I had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth and it didn't fix the migraines (turned out to be something else causing it). So I came off it after about 6 months.

No noticeable change in my moods by the way.

Only thing keeping me sane right now. It allows me to sleep even when my pains horrific. It also makes me gain weight, over 30kg this time,, weight drops off when I go off it. But I'd take the weight gain over the lack of sleep caused by my pain any day. It also keeps my panic attacks mostly under control and helps my anxiety. Currently due to life events those last two aren't under control, but because I'm on a really high dose my GP isn't comfortable adding anything else on top and I'm not risking reducing dose as I tried to step it back a little and I couldn't function. It's not for everyone though, all medications have risks and side effects and different bodies react in different ways. I know how crushing and exhausting the process of trialing medications is, I hope you find something that helps soon.

I take it for neurological pain (150mg) and find it great for sleep and pain control. I'm on other antidepressants as well and the 2 work together really well for both!

I've been a chronic depressive for 30 years and am pretty sure I'll be on it, and the venlafaxine, for the rest of my life!

Has anyone had bladder issues with it? I took it for a week and it really hurts!! Will it go away?

It gave me horrific vivid nightmares. I hit my DH because I thought he was a stranger attacking me, and I hallucinated a ceiling fan spinning towards me. I was moved on to nortriptyline but that gave me significant tachycardia.

Weirdly, @Lougle I get the reverse - if I forget to take it I get very odd dreams indeed/nighmares.

20mg will do sod all except give her a dry mouth. Strong enough that you feel the side effects, low enough that it doesn't actually work. Minimum therapeutic dosage for anxiety is 50mg.

It's not quite true that it isn't used for depression anymore, it is. It's just never the first one prescribed. Newer antidepressants are found to be effective in the majority of patients but without Amitriptylines drawbacks.

Amitriptyline is not as widely tolerated as newer drugs such as Sertraline, Citalopram etc. It has a lot of harsh side effects however they are mostly limited to the first few weeks and not everyone gets them.

It is also lethal in overdose. Newer antidepressants are surprisingly difficult to commit suicide with. Amitriptyline has a relatively low threshold for how much you need to take to off yourself.

However someone has to be in the minority. Some people don't get on with the newer drugs, me being one of them and have no trouble with Amitriptyline. The only persistent side effect I get is a dry mouth and it lifts my depression like nothing else. It's still around for a reason. It does work if you can tolerate it long enough.