I have a suspicion you may just have to go up higher again second time around to achieve the same effect. However best to wait a while and see. You don’t want to be taking more than necessary.
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You know that’s what I was thinking…
Im seeing my doctor today. I might ask her if I can do that. Someone also mentioned Ami along with Verapmil? Have you seen people using both? I heard it can combat the weight gain by reducing Ami and using more Verapamil!?
Quitting/reducing Ami will help with weight gain. People tend to swap to Nortriptyline. Verapamil is a calcium channel blocker, completely different drug type. Sometimes people do end up on a combination. I don’t know anybody taking Ami and Verapamil who regularly posts on here. Erik, @ander454, went from Verapamil onto Ami if memory serves so was on both in transition so to speak. From all I have read Ami has the better reputation for success combating MAV. Lots of AMI-takers pass through here.
Just saw my doctor. She kept me on 75mg of Ami and Nadolol. Hopefully that helps?
And yeah I did very well on Ami, so I 100% agree.
When did the Nadolol come in? Is this new? Did I miss a mention here? I think it’s unlikely anybody would be given Verapamil and a beta blockers as a migraine preventative.
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I asked her to try Verapmil and she said she wanted me to try Nadolol instead with the Ami. And same didn’t expect that but she said she had more success with beta blockers more with her female patients
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Oh I see. Interesting her comment. Never heard suggestion of that before. I didn’t realise the success of beta blockers contained a sexual bias. That’s obviously her experience so based on fact. Fascinating. Amitriptyline, Propranolol and Topiramate are the three recommended UK NHS drug treatments for MAV so you should be OK there. One word of warning though beta blockers aren’t the quickest of workers. And you may not see any improvements at all until you hit an effectively high enough dose. If you are lucky, as I think I was, you may not see any side effects at all either.
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Thank you, I’ve been having definitely some side effects. Very exhausted and tired. And yeah no improvement at all yet. I don’t know what was a better idea. To use Nadolol or to increase to 100mg of Amitrypline. She mentioned both. So I guess I’ll see?
So I’m not sure if I made the right choice or not. Sigh…
I assume you are increasing very low and slow. Brain needs time to adjust to new drug in sensitive people so that means allowing time just resting at one dose until symptoms settle before increasing/altering every time. Beta blockers tend to make some people sleepy until they adapt to them. Some people find they cause so much fatigue they have to leave them off altogether.
I may just be reading you wrongly but it seems to me you are in too much of a rush. Any meaningful improvement is highly unlikely to come overnight. Symptoms upon change could, worst case scenario, perhaps take a month to settle. You just need to relax and go with the flow. Be patient. It is likely to be weeks before you’ll be sure if your choice was the right one. That’s the trouble with MAV. It is always just a case of trial and error getting to the right drug and to your own effective dose.
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Yeah you’re right. I think I’m rushing to quickly because I got a good taste of feeling back to normal for so many months. I’ll be patient as much as I can. I do kind of want to increase my Amitrypline but I think I should wait and see how the Nadolol helps…
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Hi.
Just to let you know you are not alone in wanting to try another medication. I recently got up to 50mg Ami but decided the side effects were getting a bit much. It did seem to be helping with my vibrating vision although it was still apparent in my peripheral. So I decided to swap to the next recommended medication - Propranolol. I was advised by GP to stop Ami completely and take 120mg Propranolol Within a few days I had a headache that lasted over 2 weeks. My vibrating vision has got worse again.
I spoke to my preferred GP and I am now taking 120mg Propranolol per day on their advice. I am also taking 20mg Ami which seems to have stopped the headaches.
If things don’t work out after a few months I know I can swap back or try drug number 3 - Topomax.
Hopefully if you persevere with it, you will see some improvement.
Yeah Nadolol is giving me weird side effects, my doctor has actually taken me off yesterday because I was having weird memory issues, which is not productive since I’m in school. So she wants to increase me to 100mg in a couple weeks. Hopefully it works, but def not gonna get of Amitrypline anytime soon
Hi there, which medication worked better for you? Nortriptyline or the Amitripltine? I am 37 almost 38- was diagnosed with vestibular migraines 2 years ago. Also, what were/are your symptoms? Thank you.
Amitriptyline works much better for me. I was on it for 8-9 months at 30mg and felt pretty good, got off and felt great for 5 months, then symptoms came back (I was also not following the diet well, which I’m learning is key for me). I started on nortriptyline and worked up to 50mg over 4-5 months without much relief, switched over to 40mg amitriptyline and it kicked in right away, but I also really tightened up my diet at the same time, so it could be the combo. My symptoms over the summer when I relapsed and was titrating nortriptyline- marshmallow floor feeling when walking, walking up stairs my legs felt like bowling balls (weird weight distribution), lots of head activity like a pinball machine feeling in my head, trouble with screens- computer and phone use makes the pinball head feeling worse and my head feels heavy, ear fullness/wet feeling, I felt ok driving, but always felt more off-balanced after driving. I don’t feel like I ever get attacks. I just have these symptoms daily.