Fibromyalgia flare up

[Teddybear58]

Hi, I am looking for advice please, I have had fibromyalgia for 5 years, I am having a flare up at the moment and the pain is bad. I am so exhausted with it and stiff everywhere. I managed to get a call from the GP who has prescribed me with Amitriptyline, I’m a bit concerned about taking this? Any advice about it and if it helps, thanks in advance

[Camille1]

Hi, I've been taking 10mg of amitriptyline every night for just over a year. It does help with the nerve pain and sleep. Also, a side effect is it makes the bladder less sensitive, so that's a massive plus for me. It takes a couple of weeks to start working though. I still hurt all over most of the time, so I'm seeing my GP soon to discuss other options.

Best wishes

[Cat00]

I've been on between 55 and 125mg of amitriptyline for probably 15 years. If you don't want to feel groggy in the morning take it at few hours before bed, I take it at 8.30 and go to bed between 10.30 and 11.30.

It's one of the older drugs around so GPs like prescribing it as there are few surprises. It is also prescribed for gastric problems so can help things too, although my bladder is very bad so unfortunately unlike Camile 1 it doesn't help me in that department!

Normally the suggestion is you have to give a drug at least 6 weeks to see if it's going to work for you and even then you should try higher doses before you give up on it. Amitriptyline doesn't help my fibro but it does help my sleep and my sleep is very bad so that's why I stay on it. The other thing about starting a new drug is that the side effects that can occur generally come and go in the first 6 weeks so you may not know if a side effect is actually going to be a problem unless you give it that long.

[Welshcatlady]

I take 50mg every night, it does help me sleep, and I don't feel groggy the next morning. We are all different and will react differently to different meds. So give it a try as Cat00 said it's sort of trial and error and you must give it time to see how you react and whether it helps you or not. I began by taking 10mg every night and it was gradually upped to 50mg.

[Teddybear58 in reply to Welshcatlady]

Thank you for the reply, Gp has given me 10mg to start but said to increase to 2 after 4 days. I’m thinking I may give it a few weeks first

[Welshcatlady in reply to Teddybear58]

I would follow your doctor's advice, but if you do feel that you'd rather give it longer, try to get a telephone consultation with your GP to let him know.

[Dizzy2day]

I understand amitriptykine can help relax your body, this helps you cope with pain in joins and muscles.