I’ve never heard of that combo of drugs either Shazam but it’s great it’s working for you.
My drs are scared to give me anything because I have a long history with anxiety and depression ehoch always says to them that i have an addictive personality apparently even though I’ve never had a drug problem or been addicted to anything in my life go figure. Thanks for the advice and compassion 
I am slowly working my way up with Ami but it’s brutal. I cut down on the other drugs and just don’t sleep. I’m also hAving TERRIBLE memory problems. Anyone else? I have lost my car twice now. If you had memory problems on Amitriptyline, did they go away or get worse?
Oy. This vertigo stuff is just awful. I’m really sick of it!
That’s odd, made me super sleepy to begin with, now its just a little sleepy but I can stay up much longer. No memory issues, that could be down to bad sleep. I go through phases where vertigo ‘tickles’ wake me up. Many nights I sleep like a baby though.
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What dose are you taking now Shazam?
I don’t seem to have memory problems with the Ami but I definately did when I was on topamax! I couldn’t find words and I actually felt like I couldn’t remember anything! I still feel sleepy on the Ami though and I haven’t gone up yet from 10mg hoping this will continue to improve because emotionally I feel like I need to go up a bit more. Maybe it will just take time? I’m not sure it’s so difficult to get it right
Has anyone had tinnitus with Amitriptyline? Mine has gotten worse.
I am not on amitriptyline but nortriptyline and topiramate and I get an horrendous increase in “normal” and pulsatile tinnitus for 48 hours with each increase in dose. I am staying on 10mg of nortriptyline as can’t take any higher than that but have to titrate up the topiramate by 12.5mg each week and now know what to expect. It took me by surprise at first but it does settle.
I don’t think the drug is causing the tinnitus, imho, I had it way before taking Amitriptyline and it got worse to the point where it would pulsate especially after a meal. Tinnitus is EAR TROUBLE!
There is an underlying ear condition causing my MAV and it peaked around last May and has been ever so slowly improving since. It did not co-incide or trend with my drug taking. Tinnitus started for me a good 6 months before I even started Amitriptyline. Amitriptyline has not had a positive or negative effect on it whatsoever.
My tinnitus climbs and falls daily without any rhyme nor reason, but of course there is an underlying pathology, and I believe its related to pressure in the ear, in my case due to some air bubbles that are stuck in there (and sloooooowly dissipating) I think it depends where the air bubbles are in the ear and that effects how much the pressure is messed up.
If you have air in the cochlea that usually means curtains for your hearing and you can become profoundly deaf very quickly. What I’m talking about is air in the labyrinth. I imagine its not easy for the air to transfer between the two areas because the canal between them is so small.
I read somewhere that air bubbles in the labyrinth can cause pressure on the Stapes footplate and this can reduce how much it can move and therefore the conductive hearing. I imagine your cochlea then ramps up the electrical gain to compensate and so you start hearing more of the systemic noise that is there all along (in engineering this is a decrease in the signal to noise ratio). Apparently if impact to hearing is below a certain threshold the effect is usually reversible and you can regain your lost hearing once the air bubbles shrink enough and the footplate can vibrate again as much as it used to. Prognosis depends on the extent of hearing loss: the less you have lost the more likely you will get it back.
I hear what you say James and it does make sense but I really do have super loud tinnitus when I titrate up any drug. There can be no doubt about the connection because it has happened every single time and scared the be… out of me the first time!!! It is in a different league from eating or when tinnitus started years and years and years ago before the dizzies. I thought maybe the drugs were expanding the blood vessels or something like that which would amplify the sound? All I know is it drives me bananas!
Sure tinnitus is awful and depressing and brings on anxiety often. I’ve had the super loud beep 2 or 3 times, horrible. Most of the time its just a hiss or buzz at much lower volume.
One thing to remember though, when conductive hearing is compromised, you hear a lot more of the systemic rubbish we wouldn’t normally hear at reasonable volume to take notice. It’s not the whole story I’m sure and the issues could be multifactory, all conspiring to make it REALLY ANNOYING!
Today it cannot make up its mind, one minute nice and quiet, next ridiculously noisy and annoying. Maybe I will really annoy IT and eat noisy crisps!!!
Hot Thai flavour!
For those of you with ear issues along with MAV, how did you have them diagnosed? Rotational chair? VNG? How did they figure it out?
Thanks!
Suzanne
Mine was easy. Slight High frequency hearing loss. And I’d never had tinnitus let alone persistent tinnitus before.
How do you know you have air bubbles in there? You never got diagnostic tests?
I don’t know for sure, but ever since the original incident that started my ear trouble I’ve had this bubbling up sensation in my ear almost every morning I’ve risen up. I can literally hear it and sometimes it muffles my hearing slightly and momentarily. It only happens in the affected ear, and I never had that sensation before. Over time it has reduced.
I was offered a CT scan by an ENT surgeon but I’ve not taken him up on it as it exposes you to radiation. And even if I knew for sure I wouldn’t get any other treatment - if you look up pneumonlabyrinth the advice is to wait it out with guess what? MAV medication!
So I’ve decided to do that. Wait it out.
There’s a chance its down to a fistula. But reading Dr. Hain 90% of those heal spontaneously, so again its a waiting game. If I still have this bubbling sensation in 2 years time I’ll go back to that ENT.
Do you have a preference for which brand of Amitriptyline you take?
Nope. Not even thought about that. I’ve only had I think two types of packaging possibly three but usually get this one type. Can give you the name if you like?
Relating to Nortriptyline which is a bit misleading going with the thread title but very interesting. A different approach I have not seen written up elsewhere. One reads so much about taking preventatives in order to build trigger tolerance levels but most seem to end up staying with them for years not weeks.
Hi! I just popped on to respond to a message. I have taken Effexor with amitrip and the longest acting benzodiazepine, Librium, for about 11 years now. I’m pretty sure my neurologist prescribes amitriptyline and Effexor together frequently. However, even though I’ve been taking Effexor forever, I was never sure if it helped and was afraid to rock the boat. Long story short, I’ve been having more trouble since right after New Year’s for who knows what reason and have recently decreased the Effexor to 37.5 mg. I think that helped! I responded poorly to the several SSRIs my doctor has tried, so I thought maybe I needed less of that. But I take a big dose (150 mg) of amitriptyline so don’t really know what’s going on in my head.
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Well that really is a long time. Is this under regular medical review might I ask. Has there ever been any suggestion you try coming off at any stage in the future or do they suggest it’s for life?