• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Amitriptyline Poll - Does it work for you?

Do you currently use Amitriptyline for sleep?


  • Total voters
    76

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
Had to stop it immediately, it started putting me in a coma and made me feel poisoned like a hundred times worse than a bad hangover which didn't subside on discontinuation. Think it's only just coming out of my system now as I'm only having withdrawal symptoms now plus I'm not sleeping quite as much. My naturopath says I have blocked detox pathways after I had a ONE test done and she thinks it's been stuck inside me too. She prescribed my some supplements which I'm taking. Just going to have to soldier it out. My psychological symptoms are not quite as bad in the last couple of days so hopefully might start improving from here.
hey a friend of mine went thru panic attacks and severe depression really bad for awhile after he went off a tricyclic. hang in there, tell yourself its just the withdrawal and get whatever support works for you. for sure consult a professional you trust to be on safe side. glad you got those supplements and its subsiding.
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
Had to stop it immediately, it started putting me in a coma and made me feel poisoned like a hundred times worse than a bad hangover which didn't subside on discontinuation. Think it's only just coming out of my system now as I'm only having withdrawal symptoms now plus I'm not sleeping quite as much. My naturopath says I have blocked detox pathways after I had a ONE test done and she thinks it's been stuck inside me too. She prescribed my some supplements which I'm taking. Just going to have to soldier it out. My psychological symptoms are not quite as bad in the last couple of days so hopefully might start improving from here.
hey a friend of mine went thru panic attacks and severe depression really bad for awhile after he went off a tricyclic. hang in there, tell yourself its just the withdrawal and get whatever support works for you. for sure consult a professional you trust to be on safe side. glad you got those supplements and its subsiding.
 
Messages
17
Thanks for replying xrayspex. I'm still hanging in but things have got alot worse. I'm starting to lose my mental function and feels like my brain and body is shutting down. Feel like I'm turning into a vegetable. I can barely read or process any information and barely even think what I need to do to survive never mind do it, surviving on pure instinct and muscle memory also on a spiritual level I feel like amitriptyline has completely erased my soul, I can't feel anything and fighting suicidal thoughts, I never had a suicidal bone in my body before this. Also it's like it's caused severe avolition to the point of not having the motivation to do what I need to do to survive and again just instinct is fighting this.

I'm having to fight like crazy just to eat mentally and physically. It's completely fried my brain. I'm waiting for a naturopath to do more testing but feel like I'm well past the point of no return now. I'm just hanging in praying for a miracle. Please no one take this drug it has the potential to completely destroy you on every level especially people with M.E.
 

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
Messages
5,902
Location
South Australia
Hope you didn't stop it immediately and weaned off? Side effects should be pretty serious for you to not wean from an anti-depressant properly.

Amitryptyline is not an antidepressant at 10mg.

I also found Amitryptyline had severe side effects (to start with, really bad POTS), though at higher doses than 10mg.

I just don't understand why doctors think this drug has minimal side effects.
 

flitza

Senior Member
Messages
145
My mother, who does not have ME/CFS but suffers from insomnia, finds amitriptyline 10 mg great for sleep, but she says the downside it that it makes her feel depressed for the first few hours after getting up in the morning. Apart from that side effect, it works well for her insomnia, and does not have the tolerance and addiction properties of benzodiazepines or Z-drugs.

I sometimes use amitriptyline or imipramine (imipramine is another tricyclic antidepressant with lower side effects than amitriptyline) for my comorbid depression. It does help a little, but I find it kind of only makes half of my brain happy, and the other half remains depressed. More specifically, I find amitriptyline seems to make the perception part of my mind happy (the part of my mind that processes immediate sensory perception), but the more reflective part of my mind remains depressed. It's hard to describe, but it is not a balanced mood boost, but a skewed one, which feels odd, especially if I take higher doses.

So what I end up doing is just taking very low doses of amitriptyline, typically a quarter or an eighth of a 10 mg tablet.

I have not yet found an antidepressant that works for my comorbid depression.



Note that tricyclic antidepressants may reduce vitamin B2:

Source: 1.

Taking vitamin B6 with tricyclic antidepressants may improve their effectiveness:

Source: 1

Taking N-acetyl-cysteine with imipramine improves its effectiveness (so that you can reduce its dose):
Interactive effects of N-acetylcysteine and antidepressants


For sleep purposes, apparently amitriptyline is taken 5 hours before going to bed:
“A Prescription For Sleep”: Sleep Drugs For CFS and FM



I find the supplement pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) 20 mg before bed effective for deepening sleep, and making sleep more restful, but I find for me PQQ does make my dreams very slightly more vivid / disturbed.

This study found that PQQ helped fatigue, tension-anxiety, depression, anger-hostility and confusion, appetite, sleep, obsession and pain, with the full effect appearing after 8 weeks supplementing daily with 20 mg of PQQ.
This has been very helpful to
 

flitza

Senior Member
Messages
145
Sorry about that. This discussion has been quite helpful to me. Just started 5mg Elavil at bedtime for irritable bladder, nocturia about 5 days ago. It worked great for that but I noticed that a was getting a kind of dissociated feeling of depression yesterday and this morning had a horrible couple of hours of just feeling totally anxious and depressed. I'm not usually depressed, somewhat apathetic and a bit anhedonic but not severe.

This really freaked me a bit this morning. Wasn't sure if I shouldn't d/c it entirely, or use it every other day or reduce the dose.

To complicate the plan, I just got my prescription for LDN yesterday, which I wanted to start at 0.5mg this evening but don't know if that's going to make the Elavil situation more complicated. Anybody got any ideas, comments.
 
Messages
12
Location
Lancashire, UK
I know I am a bit late for the party here but I found this thread whilst looking to see how other people have found amityripyline. I feel for all of you who have reported devastating and chronic side-effects! It's scary stuff what a little blue tablet can do to you! It's always a huge gamble trying new medications, especially with this illness.

However, my personal story is that I have reacted very badly to most medications since my me/cfs onset. So much so that my doctor discontinued all medications and we didn't even think to try any more untill my pain levels reached utterly intolerable lay-in-bed-crying-in-pain-for-weeks migraines level (for those of you concerned I have had a CT and MRI scan and there are no concerns) so I very hesitantly started on 5mg (half of the blue 10mg pills) as a last resort to stop the pain. Within days my migraines had stopped. I was incredibly groggy for a full 3 weeks, I almost gave up because the grogginess and loss of functioning was so unpleasant and really a battle to keep my eyes open or even stand up, but then over the 3 weeks this feeling cleared earlier and earlier in the day until it was no longer occurring at all, my sleep has gone from atleast 2 completely sleepless nights a week and many more restless nights, to sleeping like the dead for 8 hours a night. I definitely have more energy and less PEM-type symptoms as well.

I've been taking these tablets for 4 months now, after the first 2 months I started getting bad headaches again (not the migraines but very uncomfortable headaches) and upped the dose to 10mg in fear of migraines returning. I had to go through an even more debilitating 3 week period the second time around but that again 100% cleared and I feel better than I have done since getting sick a year ago.

Functionally, I am capable of only a small amount more activity, but definitely get less payback for it. And not suffering daily pain/ weekly insomnia has improved my quality of life.

I just wanted to add my story to the group to let people know that it can work for some people. Although I do seem to be in the minority with this drug - and an alternative may be better.

THIS MEDICATION IS A RISK. It's devastating to hear all of you who have suffered for trying to get better. Please don't take my story as advice.
 
Messages
20
I was on elavil 10mg years ago to try and treat IBD diarrhea. I did not hsve CFS at the time. Ive only hsd post viral fatigue for past 4 months.

Doc just prescribed this to help me with sleep now but havent started yet.

In past i had morning grogginess for about 3 days. After that i just had dry mouth as side effect. I think had some strange dreams as well. It didnt work gor my ibs so i stopped it after about 6 weeks. Just stopped it not taper
It was only 10mg. For withdrawal only thing i had was very weird vivid dreams gor few dsys then i was fine.

Im curious how it will be now with post biral fatigue.. do i ecxect the same ? I dont know if i have POTS i think i do. Hope it doesnt affect that
 
Messages
10
I take it at a low dosage, but not for sleep for nerve pain. It doesn't have a huge effect (I still have pain) but I do notice it if I don't take it.