Advice on Amitriptyline?

[MrsGxx]

My doctor is putting me on 10mg Amitriptyline, minor cfs symptoms, headaches etc.. any advice on when to take them and roughly when il feel the effects?

Take at night, I tend to go hyper for an hour or two but then I can fall asleep in minutes. It helps slightly with the pain but being able to sleep is a amazing

I take 10 mg for arthritis pain. I take it two hours before bed time each night. 10mg is a very low dose and not addictive, if that is what concerns you.

My ds takes 25mg X2 a day for neuropathic pain. He has Cerebral Palsy and is very small. It does make him

I have a hugh dose to help me at night with acute and chronic pain. Take it 2 hours before bed.

Sorry stubby fingers as I was saying it does make him sleepy in the morning but the little bugger laughs for large chunks of the night but he no longer is in pain.

Thankyou for your replies.
Florentina1, I wasn’t worried about it being addictive as such, I’d just heard many different views on it and times to take it. My doctor has suggested I take 1 at 9pm every night. This is just for 4 weeks and if I need to go up in dose I can do.
Mynamenotaccepted - what causes the laughing? lol

Goose1964 - it makes you hyper?

MrsGxx a 20 year old

I was told to take it before bed- it kept me awake all night. I googled about sleeplessness on it and found a forum where lots of people had the same problem. Some suggestions were to take 2 hrs before bed. I tried that and slept slightly better but I was still awake every half hour.
I took it on a weekend so didn’t need to drive which was a good job as the next day it made me feel like a zombie and I could hardly move. I hope it works for you.

Mynamenotaccepted - ahhh I see lol x

Bringbackthestripes -
I’ve been told to take it at 9pm 😬 I’m wondering if il be ok on it, im nervous to take it but I really need to see an improvement in my symptoms so it’s something I feel I need to take. If I do get side effects is there something else that does the same job they can switch me too?

I'm on it for atypical facial pain (like neuralgia). I've had it before for anxiety.
I am on 10mg. I was taking it at bedtime but was totally 'stoned' for the first three hours of the next day. I switched to taking it at 5pm, with my dinner and am finding that I get off to sleep just great at 10pm and am waking at 7am with minimal brain fog.
It's a little bit trial and error to see how it affects you, but for me it is proving very effective for the pain.

I was put on amitryptiline and really didn't like them... I felt doped up and groggy after taking them and they made very little difference to my pain... I'm trying out Pregabalin at the minute and they seem a little better symptom-wise although not that effective at getting rid of the pain! (Joint pain due to lupus)

I took it just after my dinner soby bedtime it had worked but icame off it because it didn't help my pain i did get a good sleep tbf

My pharmacist suggested taking it at around 7pm to make sure I wasn't sleepy in the morning. I found it gave me a very dry mouth at first, but that rapidly wore off. It does make me sleep like a log and I know several people who take it to help with insomnia.

queenrollo I’ve been offered it by MaxFac for AFP, but I am really scared of side-effects. I’m back to see the consultant later this month and your post makes me feel quite optimistic.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses
It's definitely worth trying. We are pretty certain we know the original cause of my pain so I am managing it with other methods too (TMJ makes mine worse so keeping my jaw relaxed) but the amitriptyline is working really well for me. It's definitely a balance of side effects vs your daily disruption from the pain.
The first week, getting used to it building up in my system I was quite groggy, like wading through treacle. I definitely had the very dry mouth. But once I got past 7 days the grogginess and dry mouth went and now I have no noticeable side effects.
I hope you feel more reassured to try it now and if so I hope it works as well for you as it is doing for me.

queenrollo that is really reassuring. Thank you. Medication aside, I haven’t come across many people with this condition, so it is actually helpful just to know they are out there! Is your pain mainly in your mouth/teeth?

I have TMD too, and I damaged a load of teeth in 2017 with clenching due to stress, which meant four root canals, plus an extraction - that was the start! I hadn’t realised I was clenching until I cracked a molar, but I think I had been doing it for a while before in retrospect.

The main source of my stress has been removed (money worries as DP was made redundant, but thankfully he is working again now), but I still clench. I am reducing my hours at work from full-time to four days as of next month to see if that helps. I wear my night guard religiously every single night to try and minimise damage, but I think the clenching is just a bad habit now.

I didn’t actually go back and ask what else I could take, although I did speak to the dr on the phone, and said about the problems I had had with them and his response was “oh, that’s surprising” and that was it. I just don’t have the strength to go back and deal with it all at the moment so if I’m really bad I just take an extra gabapentin and hope for the best.
It works for lots of people so hopefully it works for you.

I take 10mg at 7:30pm, I get up at 6am (on a work day) and still feel tired, I go to bed early so taking it at 9pm would be too late for me.
It's great stuff though!

I was on 30-40mg for similar conditions. I took it for three years and whilst it helped me sleep, I had bad side-effects with my cognition and just generally not being like myself.

Whilst it’s technically not addictive, coming off it was very, very difficult. I googled and found this is quite common, but lots of GPS aren’t aware of this.

I’ve recently started taking mirtazapine for insomnia and that’s really helping. Being able to sleep makes a big difference to my pain levels.

I have been put on Amitriptyline for slight cfs.
It’s been 6 months, I’ve had tests which hasn’t fount anything, and I’m getting no better. I just can’t believe the diagnosis.
I have absolutely no energy
Light headed most of the time especially if I sit still, if I am doing cleaning etc I’m normally fine but I tend to want to lay down most of the day. It’s hard for me to get up in the morning (wake up) I only started my Amitriptyline last night and I’ve not had any major side effects.
Does this sound like cfs? I’m 25 newly married and have a 5 year old child. It’s ruining me x

I also have no pain.

I also have CFS -amongst other things- I would like to say it does get better but........
There was a discussion here, I can’t remember it all (memory is terrible) but may be some useful info for you

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3433952-CFS-is-taking-over-my-life?messages=100&pg=2

Thankyou for that, I just had a read x
My doctor has been great in all the tests he has done, he then sent me to endocrinologist, who basically just read off my notes and sent me away with minor CFS. He said ‘your at the very low end of the spectrum’ he did say most suffer with pain, that’s one thing I don’t have, he put me on Amitriptyline which I only started last night and basically said I should see an improvement I just think after reading that thread, and other things I’ve looked into it’s hard for me to believe I have CFS when people have it 10x worse than me and I don’t recall having any illness to trigger it apart from the day it happened I was sick 🤢. It just all happened so fast x

My GP Has just put me on it for a pain in my back but it's definitely helping me sleep better at night. Feel exhausted!! But in a good way 👏👏👏