Anti depressants

[charlest240]

What is the safest anti depressant to take that is not Ototoxic and will not worsen the sound of your tinnitus please?

[perlcoder]

Hi charlest240

I am not qualified to give an expert answer to your question. Anecdotally , over the the years, I have heard people complain that most antidepressants have worsened their T, or improved it, or had no effect either way.

In my own case, I have been prescribed amitriptylene (though not for depression) and sertraline (200 mg daily at maximum, though I worked up to that and tailed down slowly). In my case neither had any effect at all on my T. Again anecdotally, I don't recall seeing many complaints about amitriptylene, which seems generally to be considered an old-fashioned but largely benign drug. I have seen several about sertraline, but, as I said, that was not so in my case.

This won't help you much I fear, but at least it is an initial response based on personal experience.

[Happyrosie]

You could ask your pharmacist maybe?

[TinnitusUKPat Partner]

Hi Charlest240

I'm going to act as Devil's Advocate here, so forgive me if I'm expressing an idea which is unpopular in the wider tinnitus community:

Are anti-depressants inherently ototoxic? Has that been proven in any reputable study or journal? As Perlcoder suggests, medications typically have one of three reported effects:

1) They improve the symptom or cure it

2) They have no discernible impact

3) The person taking the medication suggests it has made things worse for them

Of those 3 groups, which is likely to be the one which has the largest audience? I think you can guess without me having to say it.

It doesn't mean that they're right - but it may show that an opinion like this is more likely to get our attention as it tunes into our worst expectations or suspicions about a problem.