Hi all, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Amitriptyline and could advise me on the side effects, becos I just don’t know what to do.

I have recently (about 4 weeks ago now) been prescribed Amitriptyline 25 mg to help me sleep and with the pain through the night. I have always had terrible trouble sleeping and would average about 3-4 hours a night, but now my pain is getting worse I am hardly sleeping at all.

I’ve been told by my doctor that Amitriptyline is an anti-depressant when taken 50 mg and above but below that it can be used as a pain killer. While it has helped me sleep, which is great, my dilemma is that since taking it I have been so down and depressed that I can barely bring myself to get out of bed anymore! On top of that it doesn’t really help with the pain during the day, which my doctor said it would.

Has anyone else had this problem? Can anyone suggest what I should do please. I am thinking of not taking them to see if my mood improves, but I’m reluctant becos for the first time in years I am actually sleeping. please HELP!

Yes...i ended up being mildly suicidal by the time i had ended...i was finding myself holding my pills in my hand for no reason.

I also passed out more

I reacted really badly to amitryptyline. It didn't really affect my mood, more like it made me a zombie. It can definitely be a tough choice with this sort of thing when you're finally getting to sleep. There are a couple of other anti-depressants that can be used for sleep as well as amitryptyline. Have you ever tried Trazadone? I've found that it has much fewer side effects that amitryptyline. In any case you may want to talk to your doctor to get their opinion.

i hallucinated when i took it, but i tend to react badly to things like that...

I took amitryptaline for the same reasons, but I was on 10mg. I found it did help me sleep, but I was a zombie during the day. That by itself was enough to make me feel down. I came off it after 6 weeks.

I'm on dosulepin now, and feeling much better. I think it is weaker that the amitryptaline, but it doesn't leave me feeling like a zombie, and is helping me sleep. I'm not sure if it is affecting my pain levels, but I am feeling generally much better than I have in 20months. Still not well enough to go back to work, but starting to build my life again. Although I am sorta waiting for the catch and waiting for it to fall apart. It has only been a couple of week.

I'm actually talking to my doctor today to try something different. It has definitely helped me sleep, but it has been doing squat for pain. I really understand your reluctance, because that sleep sure is a nice thing. I know there are a lot of other options out there. If you're not happy with your medication, talk to your doctor about switching to something else.

Thanks so much for all your help and comments, it’s so nice to be able to hear from people who have had first hand experience of these things. I was beginning to think it was just me being down about my pain but you have put into words exactly how I have been over the last month, just a complete zombie! And I didn’t even say that in my post so that proves to me that I’m not imagining it.

I will talk to my doctor about switching to something else. Many many thanks again.
Lude. xxx

Well I stopped taking Amitriptyline about a week ago and already feel better in myself but obviously the pain came back almost straight away and I stopped sleeping. I’ve been to my doctor today and have been prescribed Gabapentin to try. I have to go back in a week to see how I am getting on. However from what I’ve read here from other spoonies it seems to work well, so fingers crossed.

Many thanks again for your advice.

My pain specialist has started me on Amitriptyline to see if it makes any difference to my pain levels (chronic sacral pain following years of coccydynia and coccygectomy 4 years ago, sacral stump bone is very prominent) - I currently take tramadol and use a lidocaine patch over the bone.

He started me on 5mg to see if the side effects were too bothersome, then stepped up to 10mg nightly, and have just stepped up to 20mg to see if that starts to make any difference. I'm not noticing any major grogginess, but I am noticing how it affects my sleep. It makes me really sleepy when I take it which is great for getting off to sleep, but I'm not sure if it's affecting the quality of my sleep, as I wake up feeling totally knackered, as though I've not had a good quality of sleep (or maybe it's just the hangover of the dosage). I'm also finding that I'm having incredibly vivid dreams - has anyone else found this?! My boyfriend also noticed that it seemed to take much longer for me to fall into a deep sleep than before I started on the Amitriptyline (by the pattern of my breathing that I guess he's used to, and also apparently by how long it took for me to start snoring!). However by contrast I'm wondering if maybe I'm sleeping more deeply than before I started on the Amitriptyline, as I'm waking up really sore because I've rolled onto my back and stayed like that all night (and that puts pressure on my sacral bone) - just wondered how others had found Amitriptyline affected their sleep?

As an aside, I'd love to think that it might start to make a difference to my pain but am not very hopeful thus far I tried Lyrica for about 6 months last year however I found that it didn't seem to have any beneficial effect, and that the side effects were too bothersome (I couldn't stop peeing, which started when I went on the Lyrica and went away when I stopped) - which seems to suggest that the pain isn't neuropathic, which I guess also maybe suggests that the amitriptyline won't work either, but I'm hopeful that maybe if we keep increasing the dose it might start to make some kind of difference.

All and any input on your experiences of Amitriptyline would be great!

Yes, ami is likely to cause vivid dreams. It should make you sleep deeper (ie. better), but of course it isn't guaranteed to work with everyone. It could also be difficult for you as if it makes you sleep on your back, your pain levels will rise, so your sleep will be worse.

If you're waking up groggy I would ask if you can take your dose back down to 10mg and see how that goes.

Whilst you are on this, watch your weight and if you get any palpitations, get thee to your doc and say you want off. My weight sky-rocketed on the ami (other factors too) and I got all sorts of heart related stuff without realising they were linked!

I had vivid dreams (nightmares) when I started on Amitriptylene. I also had heart palpitations. The good news is that there are other formulations of similar drugs. I've had decent experiences with Trazodone (same drug class), and I know there are others out there. I do hope that it helps you.

Thanks Linz - glad to know the dreams thing isn't me being totally bonkers!

I'm not waking up massively groggy, just feeling a bit as though I don't feel as refreshed as I ought to in proportion to the amount of sleep I've actually had (versus feeling more refreshed on fewer hours when I wasn't taking the ami)

10mg didn't make any difference at all to my pain, so we're just upping the dose to see if a higher dose does have some impact before discounting it entirely - the question will be if it only has a beneficial effect at a higher dose but the side effects are too bothersome, whether the benefit outweighs the side effects or vice versa. As yet am not noticing anything on 20mg, so will see how we get on really!

Thanks also for the heads up about the weight and heart - weight gain to be honest would be a good thing, as my pain is exacerbated by a lack of padding over the bone, and a recent stress at work / flare up of pain meant I lose even more weight and am technically underweight now, so a bit of weight gain would probably help things a bit at the mo, though def something to watch out for, so thanks for the advice, much appreciated!

Katy xxx

Thanks phyrebrand - if we find the ami has no effect or the side effects are too bothersome, will definitely discuss tradozone with my pain doc (who is fantastic, as he's really encouraging about me being as informed as possible and doing my own research on the net, and doesn't feel threatened by it like other docs do. He openly welcomes any input from other people's experiences that I've gleaned from boards/lists such as this and am able to share with him, as he's not so self-important that he thinks the only ideas he comes up with are worthwhile, and appreciates the understanding of other people's experiences, upon which he can bring to bear his medical knowledge and experience that I don't have - a rare thing in a doctor I've found, who generally treat any online info sharing between patients as massively suspect!)

Katy xxx

i took it too 10mg for two months and 20mg for about a month...i had to get off.

i had fluctuaing blood sugar...i would have to eat every hour or else i'd shake and get weak...i gained weight which was one of the reasons i was put on it (for IBS and fibro too)

after being put on 20mg i got the heart related stuff and was abruptly cut off...which was bad because my anxiety SHOT up.

as for sleep...it still took me about 2hrs a night to go to sleep...and i waked up groggy every day...i would have dreams but i wouldn't remember them...i mixed with codeine one night and had really crazy dreams...so watch out there!

i'd mostly watch out for the heart stuff...i ended up having a painc attack...and combined with ami i collapsed...(i have an anxiety disorder)

anyway, best of luck and i hope it works well for you!!!!!!

I started at 10mg and am now on 25mg's. I like it a lot but may talk to my doctor about going off of it because of weight gain. Try taking it an hour or so before bedtime...that may help with the groggyness when you wake up...I've found that helps a lot! Good Luck!!! (Oh, the vivid dreams should go away a few weeks after taking it.)

i've always from a very young age had extremely vivid, lucid, detailed dreams, and been able to remember every single detail about them. Until my health started getting worse at a much increased rate about 3yrs ago, at which point all dreams stopped.

As my health got worse, they tried me on Ami but I only lasted about 2wks. I started having the most horrific, truly terrifying nightmares that I could imagine, with all the intensity that I'd always dreamt. Then they tried me on Dosulepin (used to be dothiepin) which they said was less potent than Ami. I was on that for about 3 months but didn't really get any benefit at all except having the occasional dream.

Then they put me back on Ami again about 2wks ago, with the thought that perhaps going from having no dreams whatsoever for a couple of yrs to having really intense ones again may just have been a shock to the system, which is why they started turning horrific half-way through. Well, for the first 4days or so, it worked, I had amazing dreams and felt like I'd actually slept when I woke up. but that's stopped now, and I'm not really noticing any other benefit. And the dreams have stopped again. not sure if the dreams are as linked to quality of sleep as I'm imagining but it feels like it... I'm currently on 25mg, which I was told was the minimum dose?!? although I think I might ask to increase this to see what happens...

anyway, ramble over, I guess what i'm saying is that if nightmares are a problem, ask if you can try a less potent tri-cyclic for a while and then go back onto the Ami...?

hi im on amitriptylene my doc put me on 10mg at first then he top me up to 50mg at nite and 25mg in the day,it does make me sleepy at nite i get a goodnite sleep,but in mornings i feel as i have done 10 rounds with mike tyson,but im getting used to them,so goodluck ladies,

yeah, I was wrong, I'm currently on 10mg, I was thinking of the Dosulepin, I was on 25mg of that.

I already feel like that in the mornings as it is! Does the Ami give you really vivid wierd dreams? what effects have you noticed apart from the drowsiness?

hi there,i do have very weird dreams,the other day i saw a person in my bedroom but it was only in a dream,it felt like it was real,very weird,

having a hard time reading tings and focusing today, but glad i got through most of this thread.

I have had suc weird dreams......was breastfeeding a baby the other night, and NO there was nothing going on in our bed!

I wast taking Ami for a few weeks a while bak but couldn't functin in the morning, now i just take it when i've had flareups and am on the mend and off the steroids, and i just have to plan not to go anywhere that day cause i just can't shake that groggy feeling when i'm on it.

But i didn't know about the dreams....i thought i was going crazy too. I really don't remember having dreams like this ever, but since i have been on all these meds things certainly have changed.
deb

has anyone had wierd dreams after stopping Ami?????

i get scary ones now and I don't know why.

I tend to have what I call Psycho dreams without amytriptaline or the previous Flexeril/cyclobenzaprine. I do much better with sleep with either med.

Can you picture this: we had to move into an apartment when our home was damaged in a storm. The first night in there, my husband has to leave at two AM to go fax a document to a client in France (we were landscapers in Ohio) and once he is back and we snoozing again, a large dump truck comes backing up near our aparment. I hadn't yet started on the cyclobenzprine and I was up running around on our bed thinking that we were be attacked by fighter jets.

I don't usually share this story with too many people as it is most embarrassing. However, I thought that perhaps my story might help others to feel less goofy.

I often think that my purpose for being put on this earth was so that others would feel so much better and more normal after encountering me. I could be wrong, but comic relief seems to be my gift.

Grace happens, even during weird dreams,
Denise

Well aren't you lucky! We are all supposed to have a purpose and good for you, you found yours! LOL,

I'm glad you've shared caue i really thought i was over the edge for a while with the dreams i ws having .....i mean in the last weird one, when i had taken amitrip to try and start on it again, i was breastfeeding and living in a basement apartment......now my youngest is 11 and would find that quite gross, and i live in a house and well, you know, none of this dream made anysense.
Sometimes you wake up embarassed about what you dreamed too, not that it is embarassing but that you realize yu thought it was reality and yu spend the day walking around making sure it wsn't....

And of course stress doesn't help, and i don't know about fighter jets, but the dump truck noise would have freaked me out too!

oh, hey, you are welcome. At first, I didn't know anyone having the goofy dreams I was when I didn't take the med and was first trying to remember to take it.

Now, this particular move was what awoke my fibro enough to seek treatment and unbelievably, my doc referred me to a rheumy in less than two months. He should be given spoons - he referred me when I asked if I was being a sissy and that I should expect to be feeling so old.

I have only met one human in person who admits to the nightmares/psycho dreams and she said the flexeril caused them. Well, it just goes to show that we are all different. (BTW, in a "strengths finder" at my parish one of my strengths is individuation - I don't like to clump groups of people into one mold. Surprise! )

Hang in there, the dream police haven't been alerted to your problem, yet.
Denise

My pain doc advised me to step up to 25mg nightly as I wasn't noticeing any discernible benefit from the 20mg dosage: I've been taking it for just under two weeks, and it's only now that the side effects are starting to hit me in any real way. He advised me that some people found they experienced a hangover-like effect in the mornings, and it's something I've just started to notice on the higher dose - as well as the crazy dreams I'm now feeling quite foggy and spaced out when I get up in the mornings, and takes a good while to get going - even then I'm totally shattered and still feel a bit spacey. I'm not sure if it's really making a difference to my pain - the last week hasn't been too bad painwise but as it sometimes can wax and wane without any real understanding of why it's suddently worse or better, I'm not sure if I've just been having a good week or if the amitryptiline is making a difference.

However, even if it is starting to make a difference at this level, I'm not sure how I'd get on taking this long term, as I'm not sure that the difference it's having on my pain (still needing to take tramadol) is significant enough to make this morning hangover worthwhile! Will text my doc to see what he thinks, I definitely want to give it a good test, as I don't want to give up too early, in case it is helping and the hangover effects start to fade as my body adjusts to the new dosage (my doc is brilliant, he gave me his mobile phone no. and gets me to update him on how I'm getting on with the new med by text message in between appointments!)

From what I've gathered the hangover seems to be a pretty common side effect - has anyone noticed the side effects decreasing the longer they've been taking this medication?

I have never been one to wake up easily and happily. In fact I am more like you are as my base-line personality.

There are those happy-mongers out there that say we should awake to the day thrilled at the possibilities placed before us.

Every morning, no matter what I do to try to think positive when I wake up, my first thought is still "NO!!!!"

Now I can't say that any med has made it worse or better. Some people contend that ADHD in adults is a sub-class of bi-polar disorder - type II and that morning thing is typical of that. I don't know. I haven't seen a shrink about it yet.

I wish you well. I hope your mornings are beter soon.

i fight to get up...yet for some reason i'm still the perkiest person around!

i have hyperactivity and bipolar disorder runs in my family...i wasn't happy go lucky on amitryptile though........i was acutally very depressed.

I never got vivid dreams at least not that I remember, but....i did get really bad grogginess actually a better discription was like a hangover feeling but without the nausea I would wake up exausted and with a bad headache. I actually got off them because of the weight gain and the headaches.

I've heard that it does help your sleep and usually the side effects ware off after a bit.

hope it gets better, but there are other stuff that do that same thing as amitryptalin and may be better for you. Just let you doc know what's going on.

Take care

Yes. I got to the stage where 50mg didn't give me a hangover. It was making me generally slightly more groggy which I didn't realise until I came off it. And I came off it b/c at that dose I was getting palpitations and my weight gain was extreme.

hi there,i have very weird dreams different 1s everytime im a sleep,some can be nightmares,but dont ask me what they r about bcause when i wake up cant remember them,i wonder y we all dream on these.

bump...this seems like a popular thread

Mhmm....because it's used in almost every condition now so it seems.

Yep - cos it costs your insurance company about $1.25 a month

Who cares about it's generally poor efficacy for moderate/severe cases and nasty side effects

oops sorry. I didn’t see this thread before I started one of my own about the very same thing. I’ve been taking 25mg for pain and for help with sleeping, but I have just decided to stop. Like you Katy I don’t feel like it is helping at all with the pain. It is helping me sleep but the after effects are too much for me. I feel tired and shattered all the time, plus my mood is very down and I can’t motivate myself to do anything. I have also had the shakes (especially when combined with co-codamol) but no heart palpitations. As for the dreams I have not noticed any difference really, I’ve always had vivid dreams.

mhmm my copay w/insurance was three dollars and out of pocket was seven...for the whole month!

And yeah...originally it was for IBS but later was upped for my Fibro...but nothing.

I have not filled it yet. I just wondered if anyone had anything to say..Albeit good or bad??

I am waiting MANY results, including Lupus testing, etc, etc..Also waiitng on an appt with the IMM/RHUMY...

Thanks

there are a couple old threads on this forum and the side effects one. elavil is also called amytriptiline. i'm on 10mg at night to help me sleep...it works well for me. it can cause weight gain(hasn't happened yet for me) and grogginess. i think steph(sdsures) mentioned taking it about 13 hours before you want to wake up in the a.m. it's a pretty good rule of thumb.

here are some general threads from the med forum:
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6420
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=8355

from the side effects forum:
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=7759
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6750

I had good results with it. Am no longer on it, but that's because I started being able to sleep wtihout it. I wish I could say it was a side-effect of the med, but I doubt it.

I had a terrible reaction to it. I took 10mg and just flipped out. It felt like my brain was going to shake out of my head. But I react really badly to most antidepressants.

Check out those threads....my experiences, good and bad, shouldbe in there.

Fyi, on "popular" meds like this a Search always comes up with info. The Search button is an option in the top right of your screen.

Bad all around for me...

Made my IBS-A more IBS-C and then made me depressed/have panic attacks...made me starve, and worsened my POTS.

did nothing for pain or sleep or the IBS.

I will search next time for sure..I had no idea it was popular, I guess I looked in the wrong places.

Thank you everyone. I still sit with the prescription NOT filled. I will think some more, and see how far off my Dr. appt will be, once I get it..

Thanks again.

Seeing how far off the doc apt will be is a good plan IMO if that shouldn't take long to find out. Most anti-depressants take a few weeks to fully kick in so if you're only waiting a few weeks to see the next doc there may not be much benefit. But if it's longer, then at least you'll know how you do on it when you do see the next doc so that'll be one less thing to experiment with.

If you're at a low dose then side effects should be minimised, unless you get a reaction to it. So personally I wouldn'tt stress about being on it at a low dose for a few months. It can be a very helpful med and most of the common issues come with long term or high dose use.

:oops: i meant how soon do you fall asleep after you take it?