Amitriptyline for chronic pain

[mononokeswolf]

I've recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and the consultant has recommended low dose Amitriptyline for 6 months to help reset my sleep patterns and for pain relief. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their experiences of taking Amitriptyline?

Lots more responses, thank you so much

My husband has been prescribed for several years, as a muscle relaxant at night for chronic back conditions. He’s had no adverse side effects. Hope it helps you.

Following

I started taking purely for poor sleep due to menopause. It's the only thing I've found that will allow me to get a full night sleep. I take 20mg.

Sadly, the more often I take it, the more I'm used to it. It also some unpleasant side effects, massive increase in appetite leading to weight gain and diarrhoea which stopped ne from increasing the dose.

I now take it twice a week. It's wonderful though to know that after a few bad nights, I'll have a good one taking it. It means I cope much better psychologically with these bad nights.

I take it occasionally very low dose for perimenopausal restless legs which affect my sleep. I can tell in the evening if it's going to be one of those nights so I have one before bed. It doesn't relax the leg symptoms exactly but helps me drop off so I'm not tossing and turning half the night and can function at work the next day. Agree with the dry mouth and a bit of grogginess next morning but soon clears.

I have it for fibromyalgia, but I'm extremely sensitive to it, even 5mg knocked me out.
I hated the foggy feeling next day.
I then tried to do without which is ok if I'm not going through a bad time.

My consultant put me on the liquid, so I'm on 2.5 ml for the time being.

I have tried nortryptiline but to be honest it did very little.
I guess I probably should have given it longer, but I had 10mg and I was reluctant to take more.
I think the rule is to be consistent, which I m not good at.
Yet, your experience might be different.
How much have you been put on?
I'd also say take it 10 hours before u want to get up.

I took it for nerve pain in my shoulder- worked a treat after £200 worth of physio made no difference. I was on 10 mcg ( or whatever the smallest dose is). I loved it - slept so well on it, had to make sure I took it between 9-10 so I didn't sleep in. Didn't put on weight on it, but noticed that my resting heart rate went up when I was on it which basically means I was becoming a bit less fit, probably because I felt slightly sleepier on it than normal.

Thesunwillout the consultant has handed me back to my gp for care with amitriptyline as a recommendation (amongst other self care things), so it's really useful to have other people's dosage experience as I can discuss it with my gp and will start small and work my way up. I wanted to be armed with as much knowledge as possible and this thread has been far more useful than any googling I've done.

Without a doubt Amitriptyline saved my life. I was in a very dark place suffering from Chronic Migraines, Trigeminal Neuralgia and neuropathic pain into my shoulders and arms after a serious attack whilst working in a psychiatric hospital. I had no quality of life, barely slept and was frankly a shell of a human who had planned how to end her miserable excuse for a life. I started on 10mg per night along with another antidepressant for my psychological issues and my life was transformed within a few weeks!

I have had to increase my dose over the years due to other chronic neuropathic pain issues, and I still wake up very groggy (but I take a cocktail of drugs that do this, so it’s certainly not solely due to Amitriptyline!). The thought of stopping and going back to the pain I was in sends a shiver up my spine, it’s been so transformative me.

I have 10mg for nerve damage pain. It really has stopped the pain. Side effects for me is dry mouth, weight gain and drowsiness in the morning . Things I have found that helps is eating a lot less salt ( as it stops the drugs effectiveness). I'm eating 1200 calories a day and I'm slowly losing weight now. Taking it an hour before bed is helping with the drowsiness. Chewing gum is helping with the dry mouth.

DH has been prescribed this for sleeping and nerve pain quite recently. At the moment he's taking it when he feels he needs to but I'm not sure if that's how you're supposed to take it.

I found it very drowsy making and made it difficult to work. Possibly should have tried a lower dose. it also made me feel suicidal for the first few weeks but that passed. I had to stop because of the side effects so used acupuncture instead that reduced my pain levels right down.

At the moment he's taking it when he feels he needs to but I'm not sure if that's how you're supposed to take it
That's the beauty of it, you can indeed take it as and when you need it rather than continously which is great. I've discussed with 4 different GPs and all have said that it was OK to do so. It is none habit forming so GPS are happy to prescribe.

I was reluctant to take it as my resting heart rate is very low and I read it could lower it, but indeed in my case, it increases it which is great for me as I also suffered from light-headedness and dizziness because of it so its an added bonus. I just wish it didn't impact on my appetite so much!

Swingofthings that's amazing it is possible to take as and when! Before this thread I was honestly expecting to have give it a go for 3-6 weeks before knowing whether it would be effective but it sounds like I'll know pretty quickly if it works for me and that I can skip days if needed without ruining the whole thing.

My DD also takes Naproxen, OP - have you been offered that too?

Bbcessex i have naproxen but it doesn't much help my sleep. I like it better than codeine-based painkillers which do nothing for me except make constipated! I learnt that after a back injury incident.

I think I read somewhere that combing naproxen with amitryptlyne makes it even more effective.

Noted, thanks bbcessex

I have been taking 10 mg (one small blue pill) for several years

I tried one night taking 2 x 10 (which I am allowed to do on my prescription instructions iyswim)

The result was horrible my heart rate was so fast and instantly regretted it

So I stay at 1 pill per night

Hope you get the result you want

I'm hoping to get an appointment next week to discuss with my GP, thanks to everyone again

I'm just reviewing this thread having started on amitriptilyne yesterday. @elephantfan, if you're around, you said give it a few days, my first day has been awful, weird wakeful sleep last night, felt dreadful for half the day afterwards in a different way to usual (much worse!) and no pain relief thus far. I am going to persevere for a few days but wondered if anyone had been through similar and got a positive result in the end?

Took me a few weeks I think three to get used to them but so worth it

Pp12 you must have had some clues that it would have positive effects to have persisted those first 3 weeks?

I took it for ages after Guillian -Barrels syndrome left me with nerve pain in my legs. It was particularly bad at night and it gave me a good nights sleep for a couple of years. I stopped it slowly and I manage fine now.