Amitriptyline - not used for depression

[Hopefullyoneday1]

I've just been prescribed Amitriptyline for my chronic back pain / old spinal injury. I have been through the co-codamol and tramadol with limited success and diazepam i use only if i have three days to do nothing but play zombie. So doc chose to try me on Amitriptyline

Doctor said don't Google it....so naturally i do otherwise :-)

What are peoples experiences with this when using for other than depression? What side effects have people experienced

Doctor gave it to me to 1, help with the pain and 2, to help me sleep. I dont sleep well because of the back issues.

Took two tablets last night (20mg) and it did faff all!

I've been prescribed it to alleviate pain and spasms in my back with ms.

I had it for interstitial cystitis - very painful chronic illness. Nothing else worked, but this stuff did.

I had it for vulvodynia - didn't have any effect at all for me, didn't help but also didn't have any side effects. It was a few years ago but if I remember rightly I started at 10mg and hope the dose by 10mg every so often (every week?) until I got up to 75g. Which is much lower than the depression dose I think.
Good luck, hope it works for you

*and upped not and hope

I had it for ME
Worked wonders

My DDad has been taking it for a while for chronic back pain and it's made a huge difference to him. I think the only side effect has been a dry mouth, which is a bit irritating, but much less bad than the incapacitating pain he'd been in for years.

Good luck!

My mum has severe rheumatoid arthritis and is in constant pain. Her usual cocktail of co-codamol and tramadol stopped helping so she was put on morphine patches, didn't help and the side effects were awful. Doctor prescribed amitriptyline, took a couple of days to really kick in but she is now coping so much better. Give it a chance.

I take 50mg a night for nerve pain. I started on 10mg 5 years ago which did sweet fa and increased to 25. My consultant now gives me 25mg tabs so I can decide for myself depending on need how much to take. It does work, just have to adjust the dose. I still have strong pain meds too though but my illness is complex.

I take it for pain associated with hypermobility syndrome. 10mg is usually enough to make sure I can fall asleep and stay asleep, though I sometimes up it to 20mg if I'm in more pain than usual. I find I'm rather hungover and extra clumsy in the morning if I do that, though.

For about the first month, it gave me some really vivid dreams to the point when I renamed them trippy pills. I've also gained a bit of padding in the few years I've been taking it, but that could equally be down to reduced mobility.

I find that it's best to take it 2-3 hours before I'm expecting to go to sleep, both from a falling asleep and getting up in the morning point of view.

I take 75mg a night for pain associated with severe SPD, SIJD, Fibromyalgia, hypermobity syndrome and nerve pain. Since they've upped the dose from 50mg to 75mg it's reduced my migraines too.

It does help me. I started on 10mg 9 years ago and it used to knock me out. I think I've become tolerant to it because I find that it doesn't make me sleep as well as it did although it makes it difficult for me to wake in the morning so I take it at 7:30.

I take it for back pain and it's one of the best drugs I have taken, doesn't give me any side effects.

My DH takes it for peripheral neuropathy and it has changed his life! It means he gets a good nights sleep every night and that makes coping with everything else much easier.

Thank you for all the replies, I do feel relieved now to find that it's perfectly normal to be used for pain.

Seeing that it needs time I'm going to give them a couple of nights to get into my system. Im longing for a pain free night day and night

I nearly resorted to the ciggies again, guaranteed at least four hours of pain relief but I am resisting!

It's good for sleep but did badly affect my cognitive thinking. I've also tried other drugs and they have had the same effect. Again for pain. See how you go but they meant I couldn't so my job properly.

I had it for Shingles no side affects at all, which I was a bit annoyed about as an insomniac I was looking forward to the drowsy but.

I had it for frozen shoulder. It was part of a cocktail with strong cocodamol and diclofenac. I did feel a bit zombied out but that might have been one of the others.

I take at night for migraine preventatives and no side effects

I had it for migraines. Slowly increased from 10mg through to 50. It decreased the occurrence of my migraines, and also helped me sleep, but did leave me quite groggy at first in the mornings. That soon wore off though, and after a while it wasn't an issue.

It did, however, make me absolutely crave sugar/sweet products. I've never known anything like it. I put on 2 stone despite trying my best to eat healthily, and that wasn't easy for me whilst taking it!

I had it for muscle tension. Turned me into a zombie.

Hi all, an update. I had to come off the tablets. They didn't help me sleep, gave me horrid nightmares, they didn't help with the pain either. So back to my codeine and tramadol

I take it at night to deal with fibromyalgia and it helps me go to sleep and eases a lot of the pains.

I also used to take it for nerve pain in my back but stopped when I was pregnant. It worked very well and stopped the spasms.