Amitryptiline - only fleetingly fantastic - why?

Medication 💊 Antidepressants
1

My background is: typical MAV symptoms, saw neurologist, his opinion was migrainous vertigo, prescribed 10mg amitryptiline. Within a few days of starting ami, I felt absolutely fantastic. Normal even. The only side effect seems to be an incredibly dry mouth and possibly weird half-waking dreams during the night. I thought I’d got my life back. Yesterday I had a blinding headache, and today I’ve woken up with all the old devil symptoms again. I can think of a long list of possible interpretations of this, and have plumped for “It’s early days, you need to give it time”. I’m not due to see the neurologist for 6 months, although I may see the GP soon to get his/her take on it. Ami seemed to work so well at first, so something must be right about it, surely? In the meantime I’d appreciate any comments you might like to bounce around, any similar experiences? I just can’t discuss this blasted affliction anymore with family/friends, I’m sick of boring them with the minutiae of my search for wellness. Any contributions would be really welcome, thanks.

Teresa

2

Hi Teresa,

How about increasing the dose? The endpoint with this stuff that you want to watch for is the level of sedation it causes the next day. It is normal to wake feeling groggy and not wanting to get out of bed but once you are up and walking out the door you should feel awake and fine – no sedation. You can keep cranking the dose up as long as that sticks. Taking 50 mg daily is fine. See below.

See this post and listen to the recording:

http://mvertigo.cloudapp.net/t/managing-migraine-james-u-adleman/806

Tricyclic antidepressants: low doses effective (for amitriptyline, doxepin, and imipramine, 50 mg/day); with amitriptyline and doxepin, end point is sleep without daytime sedation; side effects with amitriptyline and doxepin include weight gain; with nortriptyline and imipramine, all side effects less; when using nortriptyline, prescribe by generic name.

Scott 8)