Antidepressants

[6spidermonkeys]

The doctors have suggested I go on antidepressants to manage my tinnitus. I heard bad things about antidepressants making it worse .

Anyone know what the best ones are for this condition

Regards

[Hidden]

It's your decision. Several people have mentioned they are taking them. Organise your thoughts. What will the medication do for you ? Will it help you sleep for instance?

If you decide to take medication then use it correctly and for as short a period as possible based on your doctor's advice.

[Jimmuck]

I can't speak for others but I am on amitryptylene (10mg) and I can't say it has made my T worse. I take one tab just before bedtime and I sleep like a log, despite whatever racket is going on inside my head.

[6spidermonkeys in reply to Jimmuck]

HAS it helped with your tinnitus

Regards

[KC1961]

I've been using trimipramine to help me sleep, I don't think that it has had an adverse affect on my T.

Best wishes

[Jimmuck]

I couldn't say that the amitrip has had any direct effect on the T as such but I certainly feel a bit more relaxed about it. I still get days when I just feel totally overwhelmed by the incessant noise especially when it spikes but nowhere near the total panic I felt in the first few weeks. The amitrip also helps me sleep very well and I get a full eight hours every night.

[6spidermonkeys in reply to Jimmuck]

Amittip, is that the name of the antidepressant

Regards Alan

[Jimmuck in reply to 6spidermonkeys]

The proper name of the drug is amitriptyline but it's too long to type in full so most people abbreviate it to amitrip.

[Henry_HaChiHung in reply to Jimmuck]

I have tinnitus for around 5 months, initially on my left ear and now things are getting much better and the tinnitus is reduced to some low volume background high pitch. However, I also have some family issues and cannot sleep well in the last few weeks, and the family doctor prescribe 25mg Amitriptyline. I sleep very well after taking this on the first day but on the fifth day, my tinnitus get worse and become more intrusive especially at night. Then I stop taking Amitriptyline on the sixth day until now. I also read from different Tinnitus websites about anti-depressants can worsen tinnitus! I think I am among those cases. I am going to the my ENT doctor for more professional advice and prescription. Are there drugs which help tinnitus patients to sleep without worsening the tinnitus?

[Angela-H]

Hi 6sp, I was prescribed 15mg Mirtazapine which I was told was to quell my anxiety and stress caused by the onset of tinnitus. After about 6 months the dose was reduced to 7.5mg, eventually coming off it after 12 months. It did not increase the tinnitus noise/feeling, and I suppose that it calmed me down enough to not notice the tinnitus as much. I don't take anything now and have habituated to my T.

Angela xx

[6spidermonkeys in reply to Angela-H]

That's kinda what I want to do

Thanks Alan

[Angela-H in reply to 6spidermonkeys]

Hi Alan, I had never taken such tablets before, but obviously grasped at anything that the GP and audiologist said would help. I would have no hesitation is going back on Mirtazapine if my tinnitus again became bothersome.

Angela xx

[6spidermonkeys in reply to Angela-H]

Thanks Angela that sounds like a plan , mine is of the white noise verity. How do they begin to choose which ones best for you.

My father inlaw has been on loads on loads but then he is very depressed

Cheers

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela, I know it’s a late reply, I have just started that antidepressant due my tinnitus.

I don’t want to stay on it forever but need to at the moment as need to try anything.

You said that when you came off it, you had habituated, is that correct as really gives me hope?

Thank you

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

Hi Ivan, yes, after 12 months I would say that I had begun habituation and felt it was the right time to come off the Mirtazapine.

Habituation came slowly and now - 4 years from the onset of T - I either don’t hear my tinnitus or it is so quiet that it doesn’t bother me. Oh, and there are days when it spikes but I just remember that it will again go quiet, which it does

But, I long for the day when the cure is here and I don’t wake up with it every morning and have to manage/tame it.

Positivity is needed to believe that habituation will come. The less we think about it and our brain can somehow forget about it.

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela

Thank you so much for answering me.

So I can still get to Habituation even if I can’t hear it as much on these antidepressants as it has gone down and very pleased, but don’t want to stay on this long term, just to get to Habituation.

You were on them for 12 months if correct, then came off them and had reached Habituation?

If so, that’s what I will aim for.

Thank you

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

Hi Ivan, I would say that habituation had begun after 12 months - ie there were times when I didn’t hear it.

I would not worry about taking the antidepressants - I regard them as serving a necessary purpose, in the same way that some folk have to take tablets for, say, high blood pressure or cholesterol. There is no shame in taking any prescribed medication!

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela

You are right, I’ll stay on it for 6 to 12 months as well as after all this I am depressed now.

Sorry, just couple more, then I’ll leave you alone as new to this and been scary.

Can I ask what caused your tinnitus, noise, medication or stress?

I think mine was citiapram or might have been the stress at the time, to see if same as me.

And was yours loud, mine has sort of changed to a hiss?

Thank you again for your time

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

Hi Ivan,

Mine happened after a major operation - exactly 24 hours after I woke up in the ward 😱

Never had any hearing problems in my entire 62 years; never been to a loud music gig, never worn earphones. I like a quiet Radio 4 sort of life!

Tinnitus took me to that “very dark place” only sufferers know but thank goodness for this forum, the BTA and a caring hospital audiologist. (I found out that I have slight hearing loss in one ear and the hearing aid & masker helped so very much. I still wear my hearing aid (with its built in masker which I switch on when the T bothers me). Knowing that others have tinnitus makes me feel less isolated.

Initially, I had a strange pulsing sensation on the right side of my head. Then it changed to a loud ringing in right ear for a week. For months it was the most painful head experience and sounds I had ever had - a crawling pain and pulsing and buzzing.

After the first year it settled into what is my “normal” - waking up with a pulsing sensation in right ear and a hiss in the left. Also, I get a static electricity sensation in my head.

But, as I am typing this all I can hear is a very soft hiss.

You seem to be doing ok, keep positive!

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Thank you Angela

The 2 nights I’ve taken mirt it has given my bad spikes in my tinnitus, but gone the next day.

Did you get this as well or could it be a sign to not take it again?

Regards

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

No Ivan, Mirtazapine did not spike my T. Only you can decide whether it was a blip, or the Mirtazapine doesn’ t suit you.

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela

That’s good to know, it just makes me very tired and a bit disoriented.

Did you get this and if you did, did it pass?

Sorry to keep asking questions

Thank you

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

Hi Ivan, having painful, loud, overwhelming tinnitus led to the whole of 2015 not existing for me. I struggled daily - even my recovery from my major op was irrelevant compared with my living nightmare of T.

I suppose Mirtazapine must have aided my recovery.

Best wishes

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Thank you Angela

I’m off sick at the moment as it is horrible.

I want to stick with mirtazapine it’s just the side effects of being really sleepy and achy seem to be a lot.

Did yours ease off after sometime as I would not be able to work like this?

I am so grateful to you for help

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

Yes Ivan it did ease off over the 12 months. Fortunately I was retired. The head pain spread throughout my body, causing muscle spasm.

Time and patience is all we T sufferers have. It can get better for most people.

Angela x

[Ivan2475 in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela

That’s good to know.

One very last question, how long did the side effects of the mirtazapine last?

Thank you

Ivan

[Angela-H in reply to Ivan2475]

I didn’t have any side effects x

[Tiggerakafidgity in reply to Angela-H]

Hi Angela.

Ah I’ve found a person who has similar tinnitus experience.

My left ear feels as though it’s buzzing and also it feels like spiders in my ear all the way up to the side of my head.

I found taking a High dose of Pregabalin actually made my tinnitus worse.

So I don’t know weather to much serotonin effects the tinnitus.

Perhaps like serotonin syndrome (toxicity).

I have read the subject on Pregabalin with hearing lose also

[Angela-H in reply to Tiggerakafidgity]

Hi fidgety, the sensations can be worse than the noise. 4 years on and I have habituated, as mentioned earlier in this thread.

It seems to me that anything, literally, can cause or spike tinnitus.

Best wishes

Angela x

Ps I won’t be on the forum for a few days as I have guests arriving in 4 hours.

[Angela-H]

Perhaps the GPs use their own experience for what works? Mirtazapine was the only one offered to me initially and thankfully it worked. Best of luck, keep the faith, and it will all calm down. I think it was 6 months after the onset before I realised that I was having quiet times, and I began to have more and longer periods of not hearing my T.

Keep the faith, there are many survivors on here!

Angela xx

[starshine53]

Hi 6spidermonkeys ! I suggest Amatriptyline as it is by far the best for Tinnitus and related head noises. For a start, it is easy to come off the drug and it takes 11 days for it to completely leave your system. Moreover, I've never heard of serious withdrawal symptoms related to Amatriptyline. I came off it straightaway after 6 months as I have habituated to Tinnitus but I always keep some handy as I have other neurological noise issues other than Tinnitus that flare up now and again. As for the more powerful antidepressant drugs, best to steer of them if possible.

Best wishes.

[6spidermonkeys in reply to starshine53]

Someone also mentioned having a hearing aid type of thing put in . Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit too soon

Regards

[jasmineam]

Based on my experience, I would advise against taking Citalopram, as that is what gave me permanent tinnitus in the first place. I took Sertraline before and that did not affect my hearing at all though, but it didn't improve my mood either. On the other hand, Citalopram improved my mood a lot but gave me permanent tinnitus. My doctor has given me mirtazapine, which I am considering taking now.

I can only tell you about my experience of developing tinnitus 7 days into taking Citalopram and it goes like this (I've copied and pasted some of my most recent post):

I had to come off of Citalopram because it is ototoxic and gave me permanent severe tinnitus in both ears. I developed tinnitus in March 2017 after 7 days of taking Citalopram (first at 20mg, then at 40mg). I was aware of my T being loud on the 10th day and I stopped on the 12th, as I was confused as to whether it was safe to stop straight away. I was not taking any other medication nor had I been prior to taking Citalopram, I hadn't listened to loud music for a long time, I've only been to one concert which did not affect my hearing at all and that was years ago in 2014.

Although antidepressants affect people differently, I wish I had been made aware that citalopram was ototoxic. Upon reading the leaflet, you will find that Citalopram has 'ringing of the ears (tinnitus)' listed as one of the common side effects. This is only 1 down from the top (very common) and this affects 1 OR MORE people in 100. Furthermore, the leaflet does not state that Citalopram is ototoxic and if you google it the results will vary.

Even the pharmacist said that the tinnitus should stop once I stop taking Citalopram and once the drug is out of my system, but it never did. The pharmacist was not aware that Citalopram is ototoxic. According to medicinenet.com 'The effects of ototoxicity can be reversible and temporary, or irreversible and permanent.' So either the pharmacist did not understand the full definition, or she assumed it wasn't ototoxic, or both. Based on observation, doctors gain evidence for ototoxicity based off of the majority opinion of their patients and single experiments which lack reliability and validity.

The doctor put my tinnitus down to listening to loud music in my headphones in early 2015. How do I know this is false? Because I developed tinnitus in 2017 WHILST taking Citalopram and only 7 days into my course! If my T was due to loud music, I would have developed tinnitus shortly after listening to loud music in my headphones in 2015, or at the concert in Summer 2014. However, my hearing was perfectly fine back then.

Importantly and interestingly, I took Sertraline for a few months and this did not have a great effect in that it did not improve my mood, but it did not permanently damage my hearing either. Citalopram, which had a huge effect and greatly improved my mood, gave me tinnitus.

Thankfully, there are some days, such as today and yesterday, where the tinnitus is less noticeable/I am not aware of it. I can't put into words how grateful I am for those days. But my tinnitus is every second, not intermittent and I wish I never took Citalopram and just exercised to improve my mood instead.

Thank you for taking the time to read this far. I hope this helps you and anyone else without tinnitus considering taking Citalopram!